Flicker
by knightriley
Summary: As an Aura Guardian in the making, Grace was used to training being the norm. But she knew this wasn't what she wanted, so she shipped off to Almia to become a Ranger. And here she was, thrown into events that will envelop the world in darkness if allowed to continue. But can she stop it? All she needs is a flicker... /Shadows of Almia novelization, previously named Eternal Night
1. Chapter 1

**Hello, everyone ~ welcome to my newest fanfic project. I got inspired, what can I say. Hope you enjoy.**

**cover image is by Ar-Bo on deviantART ~ (and it may change...)**

* * *

I. _Searching_

_You came from a long line of mysterious people known as Aura Guardians, who had the special ability to sense, see, and even use something called aura, which was the various energy fields that surrounded each and every living thing. From the tiny Diglett to the giant Dialga, all people, Pokemon, and even plant life have their own unique aura._

_ For about twenty years, no one in your family had been born with the aura powers. They were frightened at first, thinking that they no were no longer destined to be Guardians. And then you came along._

_ You started showing signs of aura powers at the age of fourteen (you were a bit of a late bloomer), and once you did, you were given a Riolu, and thrown into Guardian training. Three years came and went, and even though you were far from a master, far from a _true_ Guardian...you decided that you didn't want a mundane life where training was the norm. No, you had always wanted adventure, even as a child. You wanted adventure, and you wanted more than what had been given to you. You just knew that somewhere out there, there was something bigger. A big adventure waiting for you._

_ You just had to find it._

"Capture on!" A small object resembling a spinning top toy a child might play with shot out of a larger device, beginning to surround the target Pokemon: a seemingly unsuspecting Pikachu. The device the top came out of was what was known as a Capture Styler, a device that could capture Pokemon much like a Poke Ball, but in a completely different way.

Using the long antenna of the Styler, the girl who was holding it was able to direct the disc around the Pikachu, forming a line and then a circle. She twirled it around and around, before the circle finally paused, closed around Pikachu before disappearing with a faint glow.

The top went back into the Styler and the girl placed the green device in the holster on her hip. She was clearly excited, with a big grin on her face and her eyes shining.  
"Very good," said the instructor, a man the girl had come to known as Mr. Kaplan. Mr. Kaplan paused for a moment before he started to laugh. The girl narrowed her eyes, finding herself confused. Then he began to speak again. "You are now a member of our secret army, the inscrutable Team School. As proof of your membership, you keep that School Styler you just used. Together, we shall rule the world..."  
"Excuse me?" There were probably weirder things in the world to hear, but that had by far been the weirdest she had ever heard. Did she hear him correctly?  
"Oh please, Mr. Kaplan! A woman's voice exclaiming, the owner soon revealing herself as she walked up to the girl and Mr. Kaplan. "Don't tease my student with a silly performance like that."  
"Heh, sorry," Mr. Kaplan said sheepishly. "The moment was just too right."  
"It's okay, I would've done the same thing," the girl said, giggling.

Mr. Kaplan then took on a more serious tone, pushing away that act the woman had described as 'silly'. Personally, the girl thought it was funny. It just caught her off guard, is all. "You passed the entrance exam with flying colors! That really was quite the impressive capture."  
"Congratulations!" said the woman, turning to face the girl. She did the same, remembering what she said earlier. This was her new teacher. "Starting today, you are officially a student of the Ranger School. I'm Ms. April, your teacher. It's a pleasure to meet you."  
"The pleasure's all mine." She was liking all of this attention, even if it did make her a little nervous. She got plenty of attention back home, but that was mainly to make sure she wouldn't mess up during her training. Now they were just praising her, and she had no real idea what to do, so she just stood there and smiled.  
Ms. April returned the smile. "Your classmates are waiting for you. I'll show you to our class."  
As she followed Ms. April out of the building, she heard Mr. Kaplan wish her the best of luck in her new school life.  
If it wasn't clear before, it was then: this was going to be fun.

-x-

Ms. April stood in a small classroom, with only six desks not including her own. "Sorry to keep you waiting class. And good morning, everyone!"  
"Good morning!" the class all said, sounding like a sort of harmony.

"As I said yesterday, we have a new student today." At the teacher's words, the interest of the students were peaked, and they all began to talk among themselves about the new student. What were they like? How did they look? Where did they come from?

"Okay, that's enough now," Ms. April said, settling down the students. "You can see for yourselves. Come on in!"  
That was the signal the girl was to wait for. She had been standing outside the door, but once she heard Ms. April's voice, she opened the door and went inside. She walked down the aisle, trying to remember all the things from her training that could possibly help her now. Stay calm, remain focused.

"Our new friend came all the way from Sinnoh to our humble Almia region to become a Pokemon Ranger. Why don't you introduce yourself?"  
The girl nodded. "Hello everyone. My name's Grace. I'm looking forward to getting to know you guys, and I hope we can all be friends."  
"I understand she scored quite high on the entrance exam," Ms. April said, praising her yet again. "...what is it, Keith? Why the big grin?" Grace looked at the student in question, but didn't see the grin that he supposedly had. "Well...anyway, we need to get you a seat. You can have the seat next to Keith."  
Grace nodded and went to her desk. Keith seemed friendly enough, and she got the feeling they would get along just fine. For that brief moment she wondered what he was thinking, but it would take a while before she would be able to know. Aura was powerful, but it couldn't work miracles.  
"I'll change the class schedule specially for today. This will be a free-study class." Ms. April then stated that she would be in the staff room if she was needed, but before she left, she turned toward a girl who was sitting in the other row. "Rhythmi, would you please show Grace around the school?"  
"I sure will!" the girl exclaimed in a cheerful tone. Oh, they would get along well. All the students flocked around Grace after Ms. April left, eager to ask her questions.  
"Where in Sinnoh are you from?" asked one of the other students, a girl whom Grace hadn't caught the name of. "I've only been to Snowpoint. The snow there was crazy!"  
"I'm from Celestic Town," Grace said calmly. "It's in the east, not too far from Mt Coronet. It's not exactly Snowpoint, but it still got pretty cold. Sometimes it snowed." The entire region of Sinnoh was cold, and snow was frequent, but in Snowpoint City the temperatures going to the negative was a regular occurrence. Or so she had heard.

"Hey, new kid." That was Keith. Now that she was focused on him, she could clearly feel, clearly see his aura, and boy did it tell her a lot about him. Not that she would tell him that. "I forgot your name, but how long did it take for you to capture Pikachu? Hours?" ...okay, maybe she would tell him that. She could appreciate jokes (as she was a bit of a trickster herself, something her grandfather hated while he _attempted_ to train her; she would get bored and end up distracting not only herself, but her Riolu too), but so far Keith wasn't making the best first impression in the world.

"No, it only took about a minute, less than that even. Why, how long did it take you? _Days_?" Her comment caused Keith and the other students to take on shocked faces, mouths forming perfect 'o' shapes. If Keith wanted a fight, a fight she would give.

She was about to say something else when Rhythmi cut her off. "You're better off ignoring him. He's just a show off. Instead, pay attention to me." Like she was asked, Grace turned around and put all of her focus on this other girl, Rhythmi. Her aura was bright and colorful, signifying the kind and cheerful girl underneath. "I'm not here to become a Ranger. I want to be an Operator. That way, when Keith becomes a Ranger, I can boss him around!" Rhythmi started laughing, before she stopped herself and added in "just kidding!". They were friends, definitely. Only friends could get away saying that kind of stuff about each other. "Come on, let's get started on your tour." She was still laughing a little as they left the class.

-x-

"Keith's an interesting one, I'll give him that."  
"He means well," Rhythmi said, shrugging. "He just has a funny way of showing it. I think it'll take days for him to recover from what you said!" she laughed softly.  
"Good," Grace said, giving a laugh too. "If he thinks he can tell jokes at my expense without a fight...well, he's wrong."  
"Like I said, he means well. Okay! This is the other classroom. The teacher here is Mr. Kincaid. He's polite, but he's really strict. 'No running in the halls' he always says." She reached for the doorknob, and Grace wanted to stop her, as just walking in would be rude, but the strange aura coming out of that room threw her off.  
So she followed Rhythmi into the room, and she felt like she was on the spotlight as the students, as well as the teacher, stared at her.  
"Sorry to disturb you! I'm taking the new student on a tour," Rhythmi explained quickly, and that stopped most of the eyes. All of them except for the eyes of the teacher.  
"I see." The teacher, Mr. Kincaid, was...well, he seemed like an interesting type of person. Not only was his hair styled in an unusual way (Grace was not one to judge, though), his aura was very...hard to read. It seemed very guarded and closed off, almost like there was a wall in front of it and she couldn't see through it. Gray wasn't something that showed up in aura too often, but if it did Grace knew that it meant the person was probably hiding something. Everyone had their secrets of course, but something about this man was really bothering her. Perhaps she wasn't as powerful as she thought. "And what do you think of the school so far?"  
Not sure what to say, Grace said the first thing she could think of. "It's different." It wasn't a lie, after having living somewhat of a sheltered life, the school was like nothing she had ever seen.  
"So it is. Well, I wish you the best of luck in your studies."  
"Thank you, sir." Luckily after that the two girls left the classroom, and Grace felt like she could breath again.

"Grace, are you okay? You've been acting a little uneasy ever since we left Mr. Kincaid's room." They had just left the staff room, and Grace was able to meet the principal (which did nothing for her nerves), and they went to the library too. They went upstairs (no matter how much Grace wanted to stay in the library) and toured the dorms as well, so now the tour was complete, save for the basement, which was off limits for...some reason. Rhythmi explained that she didn't know why exactly, but she said Mr. Kincaid worked down there a lot, and no one was allowed to enter. The longer she was at this school, the longer she felt on edge. Why would he need a separate place to work?  
"I don't know..." Grace knew _why_ she was so uneasy, she just wasn't sure if she could tell Rhythmi. She was supposed to be very careful... "I guess Mr. Kincaid just makes me a little uneasy."  
"It's probably cause you just met him. He's always been a really guarded person, at least as long as I've been here. Maybe that's why. Maybe as he gets used to you you'll warm up to him?"  
"That's probably it. Yeah." Though Rhythmi had a good point (she had met many people like what she described), the truth was Grace didn't feel like she could completely trust him. Those that hid their aura's true shine were not to be trusted. That was what her grandfather had always told her, and she knew if she didn't follow his advice he would come over to Almia and scold her for it. 'Aura never lies,' he would always say, almost like he was making a personal promise on behalf of aura. In his experience aura had never lied to him, and it had never lied to Grace either.

She didn't trust Mr. Kincaid and unless he opened up his aura, she never would.

-x-

"Do you know about Target Clears?" Rhythmi asked as she and Grace left the school building, finding themselves in the open field in front of the school. Grace saw some Pokemon running around, noticing that their auras were easy to read, nice and open. Just as she liked it.

"Yeah, I know all about that stuff. I did some independent studying before I came here so I could graduate on time."

"Well alright! There's one more place that I really want to show you. Come on, it's this way-"  
"Oh no!" cried a mystery voice, followed by several Bidoof calls. The mystery person was Janice, who was somewhat of a nurse for the school. She took care of all the students, so she was sorta like a mother to them.

"Janice, what's the matter?" Rhythmi asked, running up to the woman with Grace not too far behind.  
"The Bidoof! Please capture them!" Indeed the Bidoof (it looked to be nine in total, but it was hard to tell) were scattering around the field, seeming agitated about something.  
"I'll catch them for you, don't worry." But just as Grace was about to get her Styler, someone new joined the party.  
"Heh, I was wondering what all the ruckus was about. Looks like a good time that's up for grabs!" Keith stood there at the door, having just left the school and taking in the situation.  
"Don't just stand there, Keith! You help too!" Rhythmi called as Grace attempted to capture one of the Bidoof, trying her best to avoid the small Pokemon's attacks.  
"Aw, but that wouldn't be as much fun. Hey, new kid!" His shouting caused Grace to lose her focus, and it was what allowed the Bidoof to escape. She sent a glare Keith's way, but it didn't seem to bother him. "Let's make this a little more interesting! We'll have a capture race, you and me!"  
"Can't you make the effort to learn her name?"

"You're on, Keith!" It bothered her a little that he didn't seem to even know her name, but she got over it. Grace was never one to shy away from a challenge, and this time was no different.

Not even five minutes later, all nine of the Bidoof had been captured. They were all relaxed now, calm like they usually were.  
"That's all of them. Thank you both so much," Janice said.  
"I caught five!" Keith exclaimed. It hadn't even been a day, and Grace felt like she knew so much about him already. For one, he was extremely loud. "Which means you caught...four. Victory is mine!" It stung a little. But just as she never backed down, she was never a sore loser. Even if Keith was kinda acting like a sore winner. She lost, and that was that.  
"Thank you all for this," Janice said again. "And to the lead Bidoof...I'm so sorry. I promise you I did not mean to step on your tail. I'll make it up to you with some of those tasty treats you like. Does that sound good?" All of the Bidoof cheered, and that made Grace crack a grin. There were the obvious differences, but deep down Pokemon weren't all that different from one another. Now as for people...  
"Thank you all again!" she led the small pack of Bidoof off, and soon enough it was just Grace, Keith, Rhythmi, and some awkward silence.  
"I'd rate your captures 65 out of 100," said Keith. "Maybe even 70. But..."  
"But...?" Grace tried to get him to finish, even though he was annoying her more and more with each passing second. Still...  
"I'll be honest. You did pretty good for someone who just learned about this. You said your name was Grace, right?"  
"Keith! You knew her name all along!" Rhythmi exclaimed, somewhat scolding him. "For goodness sake...oh! Grace, there was one more place I have to show you!"  
"Oh, that's right. What is it?"  
"Do you mean Ascension Square?" Keith offered. "I'll go with you then."  
Grace wasn't really glaring at him anymore, as she was quick to forgive, but Rhythmi still wanted to act like

-x-

"This is Ascension Square. Next month, there is where the Outdoor Class will be held," Rhythmi explained. Grace was only half listening, as the other half of her was trying to take in the massive statue in front of her. "That monument is called the Pledge Stone. If you make a firm pledge here with your friends, it will surely come true...that's what Principal Lamont told me. And...there you have it! That concludes Rhythmi's School Tour of Wonder and Excitement!"  
She walked up closer to Grace, who was still pretty mesmerized by the Pledge Stone. It wasn't alive, so it didn't have an aura, but she still felt some kind of energy coming off of it. What Rhythmi said about it had to be true.

"Grace!" she suddenly said. "I'm glad I got to meet you! I hope we can be good friends."  
Keith chose that moment to step up, with what seemed to be his usual cocky attitude. "Hey! Don't worry about her. Be friends with me, okay?"  
Apparently they failed to realize that Grace could be friends with both of them. Of course she knew that they knew that, and she got the feeling that the three of them would be as close as friends could be.

"Oh, there's the bell!" Rhythmi suddenly said, as the blaring ringing of the school bell rang throughout the entire campus. It was loud enough so that they could hear it even there in Ascension Square.  
"Should we head back to class now?" asked Grace.  
"Yep! Come on, it'll be dinnertime soon."  
"Thank Arceus for that! I'm starving!" Keith exclaimed before he ran off, leaving the girls behind to chase after him.  
Oh yes, the three of them would be best friends in no time.

* * *

**So what'd you think ? and yes this will pretty much be a novelization of Shadows of Almia...I will try to put in some of my own twists here and there to try to make it different though !  
The next chapter will go through the test of courage, and after that it will be a bit of a filler until the next one after that.**

**If anyone's interested, I'll put Grace's profile in a later chapter.**


	2. Chapter 2

II. _Night Life_

Grace carefully placed the Pidgey stamp in the envelope's corner, and did a final check to make sure it was sealed and everything was filled out properly. "Rhythmi, what do we do if we want to send out a letter?"  
The girl in question was laying on her bed, reading a magazine of some sort. "You can give it to Janice, then she'll bring it to the mailman when she goes to Vientown," Rhythmi explained. Grace nodded and made a mental note to give the letter to Janice in the morning. "Who did you write to?"  
"It's for my grandfather, back in Sinnoh. He had me promise to write him once I got settled in here." It wasn't just for him though, it was also for her brother and her Riolu. There wasn't much to do in Celestic Town, so they were probably bored to death. Hopefully getting a letter from her would cheer them up a bit. Grace got up from the desk and walked over to Rhythmi. "What are you reading?"  
"It's a magazine called Pokemon World. This month's issue has an interview with the Ranger Union, so I picked it up from the library. It has lots of other stuff though, it's really cool!"  
"Can I take a look?" Rhythmi nodded and handed her friend the magazine. She flipped through the pages (but kept her thumb on the page Rhythmi was on, so she wouldn't lose it), skimming over the articles. She saw one that looked like an interview with the Chairperson of the Union, and there also appeared to be other, smaller interviews on some of the other pages. Some of them were from scientists, while others were from Top Rangers. Other than that there was also the basic Pokemon stuff, such as a Pokemon of the Month page and tips on raising them. She handed the magazine back to her after she was done and went over to sit on her bed.

The room itself contained four sets of bunk beds, eight beds in total. Both Grace and Rhythmi were in bottom bunks, but on opposite walls. It was decorated nicely, but Grace was dreading all the pink. Not that she had anything against the color (it was one of her favorites in fact, second to red), it was just so much that it was a little overwhelming.

"Say..." Rhythmi began, getting Grace's attention. She looked up and saw her close the magazine before getting off her bed, stepping toward the door. What was she up to? "Let's sneak out for a bit."

-x-

They hadn't gone far, just into the hallway. Keith and two other students were there, they seemed to have been waiting for them.  
"Finally!" he said, letting out an annoyed sigh. "Okay, everyone, now that she's here...let's begin the test of courage to welcome Grace."

"Keep it down, but yay!" the other students cheered, keeping their voices low. It sounded more like whispering then cheering.  
"What's going on?" Grace asked, with a confused look on her face. Test of courage? What?  
"We just want you to prove that you're brave," Keith said. So it was some sort of initiation? "I had to do it too when I came here. It's not that big a deal. Although..." he paused, "You do kinda have the 'easily spooked' sort of look on you though, so it could be harder for you than it was for me." And there she was, glaring at him again.  
"All four of us here have hidden our Stylers around the school," Rhythmi added in, finally bringing some light to the situation. "All you have to do is go find them, then put them in front of the door in the basement. It's not really that hard, but it's not safe to go running around in the dark by yourself. That's why we've always had one rule: the student who sits next to the initiate has to go with them."  
"Damn...you mean me." Keith made a 'tch' sound, showing his disapproval. Grace wasn't too happy about it either, so at least they had that in common.  
"Yes, yes I do." Rhythmi gave a cheery grin, not seeming to care about how uncomfortable her two friends seemed. "Go on you two. The sooner you leave the sooner you'll get back!"

-x-

Grace and Keith got off the stairs and began to head down the hall, when all of a sudden Keith decided it would be a good idea to let out a blood-curdling scream.  
"Keith, what the hell?!" Grace whisper-yelled, sending yet another glare to the boy who was getting on her nerves for about the tenth time since she met him. "If this is your idea of making things more difficult for me..."  
"No, there's something there!" he sputtered out, pointing further down the hallway. Grace couldn't really see whatever it was, but she sure could sense it. It was a Bidoof, wandering around sleepily. Keith's scream probably woke it up, and now it just wanted to go back to sleep.  
"Whatever you do, don't move. It can probably smell fear."  
"It just scared me, that's all!" Quick to defend himself, he then started to calm down and was soon back to his usual self. "It scared you too, right...?"  
"It did a little, yeah. It's just the dark messing with you, okay?" she said in the nicest tone she could muster. She wanted to patch things up with this guy, and since they were alone this seemed like the best time to do it. But if he failed to put in the effort, it wouldn't work. "Just stay alert."

"Yeah, you're right...okay, let's go find those Stylers."

"That's the last one," Grace said as she left Mr. Kincaid's room, arms full of Stylers. Jeez, even the room itself gave her a bad vibe.

Keith wasn't too far behind, in fact since the incident with the Bidoof he was never more than five feet away from her. "Alright, now we've just gotta bring them to the basement."  
"Right." She nodded, heading for the stairs, Keith trailing behind her like a lost Growlithe. Was he really still so shaken about the Bidoof? It wasn't as creepy as say, the Lost Tower, but Grace had to admit that there definitely was an ominous feel in the air. Maybe he was just scared of the dark. Everything was scary at night.

It was just the dark, it had to be.

-x-

"Huh? Grace, did you say something?" Keith asked not even two minutes after they had entered the basement. When she shook her head, he said, "That's weird...I thought I heard something."  
"No...I heard it too." So far so good. "Hm...well, come on, it's this way, right?" She led him further into the basement, navigating the halls with only a little difficulty. It was just as dark down there as it was everywhere else (maybe even more so), and there was nothing around that was alive, so she wasn't able to latch onto any auras. She felt _something_, though...

In no time at all they reached the door that they were supposed to be looking for. "Okay, here it is. Plunk those Stylers down so we can get out of here," Keith said, teeth still chattering. Grace nodded and was about to do just that, when she heard that mysterious noise again. "I heard it clearly that time!"  
"I did too...what is it?" Grace handed Keith the Stylers and got her own out, just in case. Maybe this was part of the test? "It sounds like a Pokemon...if I didn't know any better I'd say it was..."  
She didn't get the chance to finish her sentence, because four Gastly materialized in front of the duo, catching both of them off guard. Grace was prepared, shooting out the capture disc and making it spin around the ghost-types. They attempted to throw a Shadow Ball or two around to try to make her mess up, but it wasn't enough to break her focus.

The Gastly were soon captured and released, leaving in the same fashion they came. "...Gastly."  
"Oh, just some Gastly..." Keith sighed out of relief.  
Grace was relieved as well, relieved that it was only some Pokemon and nothing too serious, but something still seemed off...the Gastly were gone, but was there something else? Some other Pokemon, maybe?  
"Who's there?!" A voice suddenly boomed, the door in front of them slamming open at a force that didn't seem possible. The noise startled both of them, causing them to jump. It was Mr. Kincaid, and he looked very, very angry.  
"Crap! Let's get out of here!" He didn't have to tell her twice. For the first time that evening it was Keith leading the way, grabbing Grace by the wrist and practically dragging her along with him, as both students ran out of that basement as fast as they could.

-x-

"Mr. Kincaid? Is something wrong?" asked the boy who was in the room, turning to see what was up. He was also a student, but for some reason or another he wasn't in his dorm.  
"No, it's nothing..." Mr. Kincaid said as he stepped back inside, shutting the door behind him. "Just a Zubat making a minor disturbance in the hallway. Now then, I must ask...that experiment; was it a success? Or a failure?"  
The boy shrugged. "It's too soon to tell. Anything could happen, but I'm betting on success."  
"Excellent." Mr. Kincaid grinned. "I'm counting on you to continue to do good work. You should head to bed. Insufficient sleep does the mind no good."  
"I'll return to my dorm then. Good night, Mr. Kincaid!"

-x-

Neither Grace nor Keith told anyone else about what happened in the basement that night, not even Rhythmi. Knowing Rhythmi, it would have raised way too many questions. It was better to just keep it to themselves, no matter how much they wanted to share their experience.

That outburst was just a little too harsh for Grace's liking, and it made it all the more difficult to trust Mr. Kincaid, no matter how 'surprised' he claimed to be if it was ever brought up again. She was happy to laugh about it with Keith though, if only to distract her from those thoughts.

A few days after the incident Grace, Rhythmi, and Keith were all in the library. It was during the break, and they were all hanging out while also catching up on some study material, unless your name was Keith and you happened to be napping in one of the nearby loveseats.

"Hey, Rhythmi, are there any books on Pokemon mythology in here?" Grace asked as she stood up, heading for one of the shelves.  
"I think so. I couldn't tell you how many there are, though."  
"I'm sure I can find them. Thanks." Thus began Grace's somewhat long, somewhat difficult search for anything related to mythology. She had to look around the whole library, but eventually she found two books that each contained information on mythology in the regions of Johto and Hoenn, respectively.

She couldn't help herself. Opening up the one on Johto, she started to read it right there as she began to walk back to the table where Rhythmi was. She was in the middle of reading about Lugia, the Pokemon known as the guardian of the seas, when she bumped into someone. "Oh, I'm sorry! I wasn't looking where I was going," she quickly said.  
"It's alright," said the boy. The uniform told her that he was also a student at the school, but she had never seen him around... "I don't believe we've met. I'm Isaac."  
"Grace. I'm new here."  
"So you're the new student I've heard so much about?" People were talking about her? She figured it was to be expected, but it still embarrassed her a little. "You're from Sinnoh, right?"  
"Yes, that's right." Regardless of how she personally felt, she still found herself nodding.  
"Do you happen to know anything about Spear Pillar?"  
"Spear Pillar? Uh...yeah, I know a little. Why, do you like stuff like that?"  
Isaac nodded. "I've always loved Pokemon mythology. And by the books you've got there I'd say you do too."  
"You're not wrong. From what I've heard about Spear Pillar...it is where Arceus created Dialga, Palkia, and Giratina. To this day they say you can summon those three at Spear Pillar, under the right circumstances. Some stories say Sinnoh itself started out in Spear Pillar, but I don't know very much about that. I've heard that Mesprit, Azelf, and Uxie also have some sort of connection to Dialga and Palkia, but I'm not sure if it's the same for Giratina. Oh! Apparently there are also some ruins on Iron Island that have some sort of connection to the place."  
"Iron Island?" Isaac asked, tilting his head a little. "Where in Sinnoh is that? I've heard of it, just not where it is."  
"It's...just outside of Canalave, I think? I've never been there myself." Her grandfather had told her that there was someone who lived on that island who was also training to be an Aura Guardian, but for the life of her she couldn't remember his name. All she could remember was feeling sorry for him, as he didn't have someone helping him like she did.  
"Wow. You sure do know a lot."  
Grace gave a sheepish grin. "I grew up with this stuff as my bedtime stories..."  
"Grace!" Rhythmi called, the girl herself running up to meet up with her friend as well as Isaac. "Oh, so you've met Isaac? I meant to introduce you guys during that tour, but it didn't happen for some reason. Oh, well, you've met now!"  
"Yes." Isaac nodded. "It was great to meet you, Grace, but now I must be off. I hope we'll see each other again." He bid his farewells to the two girls before he went off into a different part of the library.

Back at their table, Grace got started reading right away. Johto sure did have some interesting legends, not anything like Sinnoh's that was for sure. She finished that book without any interruptions, and got started on the Hoenn one. The stories in the Hoenn book were just as amazing, and they definitely were some of the most interesting things she had ever read.

'_In the beginning, Kyogre and Groudon were constantly fighting. These fights are what eventually created the Hoenn region. A green dragon that was known as Rayquaza descended upon the duo, using its mighty powers to bring peace to the endless battling. Kyogre and Groudon settled their differences, and retreated to various locations where they now are locked in an eternal slumber. It is said that two objects atop Mt Pyre are able to awaken and control them. Rayquaza on the other hand, roams the ozone lair above us all, protecting the Earth from anything that may threaten it, while also keeping a watchful eye out in case the two colossal Pokemon ever were awakened. When it gets tired, it is said to come to the Sky Pillar to rest. However, no one knows exactly where the Sky Pillar is._' She was completely focused on the reading, absorbing the information like a sponge. When it came to mythology, that was what she did best.

But it seemed that Rhythmi had some other ideas.  
"So what do you think of Isaac?" she asked.  
"I can always appreciate someone with a taste for mythology," Grace said, in all honesty. "He's in Mr. Kincaid's class, right? How come I didn't see him there on my first day?"

"He may not look it, but he's a genius." He did kinda give off that vibe... "Mr. Kincaid lets him study independently, outside of the classroom, so he's usually in here. But I've noticed that sometimes he can't be found anywhere around the school, so I guess he has some kinda of a secret hideout?" Rhythmi giggled at that thought.

"Think he'll invite us?" Grace laughed alongside her friend. She had to be honest, the idea of a secret hideout somewhere on the campus did sound interesting.

"You and me? Definitely. Keith, on the other hand? I'm not so sure." Rhythmi gestured to the boy, who was still fast asleep on the loveseat. Upon hearing his name however, his eyes darted open, and he lifted his head up.  
"Huh?" he asked, voice groggy. Grace and Rhythmi laughed again, but that only confused him even more.

Grace wouldn't admit it, but hearing about how Isaac sometimes disappeared without a trace made her worry. Clearly he was okay, but she wondered where he went. The only somewhat secret place she could think of was the basement...but that was impossible.

Right?

* * *

**Next chapter will have the Outdoor Class.**


	3. Chapter 3

**I'm probably having way more fun with this then recommended.**  
**Have a key.**  
_italics =_ thoughts  
**bold** = voicemail  
-x- = major scene / time change

* * *

III. _The__ Great Outdoors_

About a month after Grace's arrival, all was well within the walls of the Ranger School. Classes proceeded as usual, and Grace had officially melded in with the population. She felt at home in the school, but there was no place she liked better than the library. She spent as much time as she could in the library, attempting to read each and every book she could find on mythology. Secretly she wished to meet up with Isaac again, the boy had peeked her interest and she wanted to get to know him. Her efforts were in vain, however, as he never seemed to show up, no matter how long she spent in the library. Grace also continued exchanging letters with her grandfather and her brother, asking her how all the Pokemon were doing on more than one occasion. She wished she could communicate with her Riolu, but alas, she wasn't that powerful. It would have been a different story if she was there with her, but she wasn't.

However, that day was no ordinary class. Ms. April was in front of the room like usual, facing all of her students with a happy smile on her face. "Does everyone know what today is?"  
"Friday?" Grace asked. The other students laughed, as did Ms. April. "Was I wrong?"  
"It is Friday today, but it is also..." she trailed off.  
The students all finished for her. "Outdoor Class!"  
"Come on, Ms. April, you know we would never forget about Outdoor Class!" Keith exclaimed, somewhat hurt at the (fake) lack of faith the teacher had in her students.  
"That's right, you guys have been looking forward to this for a long time." Ms. April smiled again. "Today we have a Pokemon Ranger visiting us. I hope everyone has good questions to ask! Now then, let us all head out to Ascension Square so we can meet them!" She then led the class outside, and down into Ascension Square, where the Outdoor Class would commence.

-x-

Ms. April and the students arrived at Ascension Square, where Principal Lamont was waiting for them as well as a tall man in a Ranger's uniform.

"It looks like everyone is here," Lamont said as he briefly glanced over the group of students. "Let's get this Outdoor Class started. This is Crawford."  
"Like Principal Lamont said, I'm Crawford. Nice to meet you everyone!" Crawford wore the usual Pokemon Ranger uniform, but what stood out the most about him was the afro hairstyle he sported. A Budew peeked out from behind his leg, chirping gently as if to say hello. "And this is my partner, Budew."

"Alright, it's time for the main event," Ms. April said, before pausing briefly for a slight dramatic effect. "The Question-&amp;-Answer Session of Terror! Let the questioning begin!"  
"I'll go first," said one of the other boys. Despite being her for nearly a month, Grace had yet to learn everyone's names. "Why did you decide to become a Ranger?"

"Hey, has anyone asked you about the initiation?" Keith suddenly asked, whispering as he tapped on Grace's shoulder. She kinda wanted to listen to Crawford, but Keith had plans of his own, it seemed.  
"Not really." Grace shrugged. Other than the general 'how did it go?' questions from Rhythmi, there wasn't much talk about it. She was hoping Mr. Kincaid forgot about it, as he had failed to mention it up to that point. "Do you remember how mad Mr. Kincaid looked?"  
Keith was quietly snickering as he thought back on what happened that night. "He looked so mad I thought he was gonna pop a vein."  
"Grace, you're up," one of the girls suddenly said, nudging Grace with her elbow.  
"Oh, right..." she cleared her throat before she began, saying, "How did you meet your partner? Had you always known each other and then decided to go with each other, or did you just meet one day and instantly feel a connection?"  
"We met at a place called Nabiki Beach," Crawford said, nodding as he assessed over the question. "I saw Budew a few times before then, but we officially met at that beach...ever since then, we've always been together. I will say however that those couple of times when I saw him wandering around, I did feel something. Like we were meant to be friends, you know?" Grace nodded in delight, happy that such a feeling was a common thing. Common enough for Rangers to feel it, anyway.  
"Next is me! I'm next!" Rhythmi said eagerly. "There's nothing I would rather do than become an Operator. Do you think I will become one? You can tell, right?"  
"Rhythmi..." Keith shook his head. "Are you maybe confusing our Ranger with a fortune teller or something? How about me, then? Will I become a Ranger?"  
"Now you're the one confusing him for a fortune teller," Grace said playfully.  
Crawford thought about it for a second before answering. "I've only just met the both of you for the first time ever...but...I can tell this about you, both of you." He looked toward Keith and Rhythmi. "I can tell you both have passion, and that's all you really need. Passion, and hard work. I'm sure you'll make it."

One of the girls spoke up. "I have a question, too. What is the best thing about being a Ranger for you?"

"Oh, that's an easy one. The big smiles we get to see after helping people and Pokemon in need." He grinned. "You know, I'm looking forward to working with some of you folks someday. Keep your spirits high and your dreams will surely come true!"  
"We will!" the students resonated, before a dinging noise disturbed the scene. The source was Crawford's Styler, which he pulled out of his holster before pressing a button.  
"**Voicemail, voicemail!**" said the voice on the other line. Whoever it was, they sounded to be someone of authority. "**Crawford, can you hear me? It's me, Barlow! There's a washed up Mantine on the eastern shore of School Island. Apparently, it ran into a cargo ship. You are to join up with Luana, who is heading to the school as we speak, and head to the site immediately! We're going to need your help on this one!**"

"Save that Mantine!" the students cheered. The message was loud enough for them to hear every word.  
"Principal Lamont!" Crawford exclaimed as he looked at him. "Since the students are so concerned, I'll report back on how the mission went. Sorry to cut Outdoor Class short like this!"

Lamont nodded, of course he understood. The life of a Pokemon Ranger was always filled with unexpected twists and turns. "There's no need to apologize. As they say, duty calls."  
As if on cue, a boat had pulled up to the small dock outside of Ascension Square. Another Ranger with a Buneary by her side ran out of the cockpit. "Crawford, let's go!" she called.  
"Bun, bun!" said the Buneary. It sounded like she was just as nervous about the Mantine as everyone else was.

Crawford and Budew ran to the dock and hopped on the boat, vowing to save Mantine. The students were left in awe as the boat raced across the water, becoming nothing more than a tiny speck on the horizon in only a few short moments.  
"Well, everyone! That was the shortest Outdoor Class ever," Ms. April said. "But it was also the most gripping of them all." The students turned to her when she announced that it was time to return to class; they followed Ms. April and Principal Lamont out of Ascension Square.

Grace, Keith, and Rhythmi, however, stayed behind. "That was so cool!" Grace happily exclaimed. "So that's what it's like to be a Pokemon Ranger!"  
Rhythmi was excited too, but for slightly different reasons. "Can you believe it? A real Ranger guaranteed that I'd become an Operator!"  
Watching Crawford leap into action so quickly was admirable. It was almost like watching a movie. The adrenaline beginning to wear off, Grace said, "There are no guarantees in life. Anything could happen." She shrugged.

"That's right." She hadn't expected Keith to agree with her, but then again in the short month that they had known each other his behavior toward her had changed ten-fold. "Like Crawford said, you have to work hard to make your dreams come true."  
"I know that!" Rhythmi huffed in annoyance. "I'm going to do it. I'll make my dreams come true."  
"Me too! I won't give up!  
"Hey, why don't the three of us make a pledge, right now by the Pledge Stone?" Keith suddenly suggested. Grace had been so caught up with what happened that she had nearly forgotten where they were. "Let's pledge to each other that we'll make our dreams come true."  
"You bet! I'll pledge that! How about you, Grace?"  
She didn't need to think twice. "Yes, of course!"

-x-

"Grace, you okay? You've hardly touched your food." Rhythmi said two mornings later. They, as well as the other students, were in the dining area eating breakfast. Some had already finished and were going to class, but most were still eating. The commotion of the Outdoor Class remained a common topic, as many of the students were wondering what happened to that Mantine.

Surprisingly, Keith was no where to be found.

"Huh?" Grace had been lost in her thoughts, running her fork over her scrambled eggs. Under normal circumstances, she would have eaten it without any trouble. Janice was a wonderful cook, but so far today was not looking like it was going to be a normal day. "Yeah, I'm fine. It's just that, in his most recent letter, my grandfather said that he's going to try to move over here so he and my brother can be closer to me. I guess I'm just nervous about that." Truth be told, there was more to that letter, more details the she was hiding from Rhythmi. Her grandfather did want to get a house in Almia, yes, but he also wanted to see if Grace wanted to continue her training. She decided to keep her reply straight and to the point, stating that she wasn't sure if she would have the time, given all the Ranger work she would be doing. Her grandfather never liked unclear answers, and since she hadn't exactly said yes nor no, she knew she would be hearing about that later.

The problem was, she didn't even know if she wanted to.

-x-

"I've received word from Crawford," Ms. April said to her class, grabbing Grace's attention from tapping her finger on her desk, half out of nervousness, half out of boredom. Keith wasn't there in class, so there was a certain heaviness in the air, like there was a Keith-shaped hole that needed to be filled. "The Mantine was taken in by the Ranger Union and nursed back to health. This morning, the Mantine was safely returned to the sea!"  
"That's a relief," Grace sighed under her breath. Knowing that Mantine was safe certainly took a load of off her shoulders. Not being able to do anything kept her jittery for that first day, but in time she would have her own chance to make a difference.  
"Now then, let's begin with today's lesson. Today we will be discussing the teamwork between Rangers and Operators." Ms. April began to start her lecture, pacing back and forth in front of her desk. "If there is no trust between the Ranger and the Operator, the mission will be a disaster. Even something simple could become impossible to manage. Rangers go where there are no roads. It is the job of the Operators to light the way for Rangers, using a special communication system. Does anyone know what it's called?"  
"I know!" Rhythmi chimed happily, her hand slightly raised. "It's called voicemail!"  
"That's correct! Using voicemail, Rangers are able to communicate with the Operators, and other Rangers. However, your school Stylers don't have voicemail on them. But we're in luck! Here I have two Stylers equipped with voicemail. We were able to borrow them from the Ranger Union just for this. Principal Lamont, who is currently there on business, had to ask for them himself. Today we'll use them to demonstrate the field operations of Rangers. Let's start with Rhythmi as the Operator and Keith as the Ranger."  
"Ms. April," Rhythmi spoke up, "Keith isn't here yet."  
"He wasn't at breakfast either," Grace added.  
"That's odd...did he oversleep?" the teacher wondered aloud. "That's not like him. Well, no matter, Grace can play the Ranger."  
"No problem," Grace said as she stood up from her chair and went to the front desk with Rhythmi, each of the girls receiving a Styler. Instead of the school-issued ones, these were red.  
"Oh, wow!" Rhythmi was just full of pep today. "Can you hear me, Grace?" she said into the Styler.  
"Um, Rhythmi. We're right next to each other. Of course I can hear you. Here, let me move further away." Grace began to move toward the door, but was surprised when it suddenly opened. It went so fast it was enough to make everyone, including Ms. April and Rhythmi, flinch. If that door had been opened any faster, it surely would have been ripped off the hinges.  
In came Mr. Kincaid, looking about as angry as he did on the night of the initiation. He glanced at Grace briefly, who was still giving him a 'what's wrong with you?' kind of look, but he promptly ignored her, looking to Ms. April. "Ms. April, I apologize for disrupting your class. But there is a matter that I must speak of with Keith."  
"Keith isn't here," Ms. April said simply.  
"Not here, you say...you see, the supply have school Stylers have mysteriously disappeared from the staff room. And you say Keith absent from class today?" He paused, looking around the classroom and confirming that Keith was in fact, not there. "Quite the coincidence, don't you think? Perhaps finding a place to stash those stolen Stylers is taking longer than he thought?"  
"Hey!" Rhythmi exclaimed, running over to stand with Grace. "Keith may be a prankster, but he's no thief!"  
"He runs in the hallways, he sneaks where he is not permitted..." Grace felt a slight chill up her spine as he spoke, that was the first time the basement incident had been mentioned since it happened. "It is only natural to suspect him."  
"Falsely accusing someone is never a good thing to do, sir," Grace added. '_And it says a lot about someone's character,_' she thought.  
"Mr. Kincaid," Ms. April began, "Please give me some time. I will go look for Keith and the missing Stylers." This was followed by Grace and Rhythmi stating that they would join the search too, and that led to the entire class offering to help. This seemed to satisfy Mr. Kincaid, as he left the room without saying another word. Everyone left the class, scattering throughout the school, searching for the class clown.

"We have to prove Keith's innocence. If anything comes up, I'll get in touch with you with voicemail, okay?" Rhythmi said.  
"Same to you." Grace nodded. They then left the room, eager to begin the search to prove that their friend had nothing to do with this horrible situation.

Grace was searching upstairs, looking for Stylers underneath the tables in the dining area. So far, she wasn't having any luck, both with the Stylers and Keith. Maybe they had all been found already?  
"I guess I'll check the dorm next," she said to no one, before a sudden vibration in her pocket startled her. She determined the source to be the Styler, and upon pulling it out of her pocket, discovered that she was right.

There were two buttons on the Styler, which made Grace do a slight double-take. Their Stylers only had one button, for releasing any captured Pokemon. The second one had to be for voicemail, she just wasn't sure which one was which. She pressed on one of them, hoping that she made the right choice.  
"**Voicemail, voicemail! It's Rhythmi!**" came Rhythmi's voice from within the Styler, making Grace sigh with relief. "**Come downstairs, quick!**"

"What's up?" Grace asked as soon as she caught up with Rhythmi. She was with Janice, right by the front door of the school.  
"I was outside when I saw a Styler on the ground," Janice said, holding up the green device. "Did either of you drop yours by any chance?"

"No, we've got ours," Rhythmi said. "It must be one of the stolen ones." Janice nodded and handed her the Styler. Rhythmi explained what was going on, and Janice too wanted to help out, so she soon left to start on her own search.  
"She said it was outside," Grace noted. "The thief must have gone out there." They probably thought they could get to the gate and make a speedy get-away, but in the process they had been dropping the Stylers. Or just that one. It was something. The girls headed outside, hoping that this small lead would take them even a little closer to finding the true thief, and a little closer to proving Keith was innocent.

* * *

**Does anyone else have voice headcanons for these characters ? Cause I could totally see Keith with a voice like Wayne Grayson's.**  
**Also, how do you pronounce Rhythmi ? Does anyone know ? I just pronounce it as "rhyth-me" but I don't know if there's like an official pronunciation floating around...oh, also ! I've decided on the day when this fic will update.  
It will now regularly update on Mondays. I might change that. But that's what I have for right now.**


	4. Chapter 4

**I can't even keep up with my own updates. Pfft.**

* * *

IV. _The Duties of a Ranger_

"There's another one!" Rhythmi exclaimed as she and Grace collected yet another Styler by the stairs at the end of the field. They had left the building thanks to Janice's tip, and they had found two other Stylers in the short time they were out there.  
"Wait...do you hear that?" Grace whispered. It sounded like voices...coming from down the stairs...?  
"That's Keith's voice! Come on!" She followed after Rhythmi as she raced down the stairs, so fast Grace was afraid that she was going to trip and hurt herself. It definitely was Keith's energies she was picking up on, but there appeared to be someone else with him.

Was it the thief?

"Give those back, you thief!" Evidently, it was. It looked like Grace and Rhythmi had arrived just in time, as Keith had another man backed into a metaphorically corner, trapped between the boy and the tree behind him.

"Keith?" Grace piped up.

"Is that him?" Rhythmi asked. "The one who stole the Stylers?"  
He nodded. "I was on my way to class when I saw him leave the staff room, arms full of Stylers! Now he won't give them up."  
"Please..." the thief muttered, backing up a little. "Just leave me be!" He made a sharp turn in an attempt to get away, but he ran right into the tree, dropping the Stylers out of reflex. A Slakoth was dislodged and fell, landing right on the man's head. He screamed, begging for someone to help him. "I can't see! It's hurting me!"  
Keith started to laugh as he gathered up the remaining Stylers. "That's what you get for being a thief!"  
"Help me!" the man said again, shaking his head around trying to shake the Slakoth off. The Slakoth, in response, only hung onto him tighter.  
"Grace..." Rhythmi said quietly, glancing at her friend before looking to the man in pity.

Grace found herself feeling the same way. Maybe it was wrong to pity a thief, but...thief or no thief, she had been taught to help people. And if she wanted to be a Pokemon Ranger, she would have to get used to helping people that maybe didn't deserve it. "Capture on." She shot out her capture disc and caught the Slakoth in mere seconds. The Slakoth then allowed her to lift it off of the man's head, and she put it back on one of the tree's branches, where it crawled away slowly but surely.

"Thank you..." the man said, breathing a little heavier than what was considered the norm.  
"Why'd you take our Stylers?" Grace asked, trying to approach the situation calmly. Surely he had a good reason.  
Keith, on the other hand, still seemed upset. "Yeah, we need those you know! How are we supposed to be become Rangers if we don't have Stylers?!"  
"Keith, calm down," Rhythmi warned. "I'm sure he has a good explanation."  
"What's going on down there?" called Ms. April. She walked down the stairs and soon met up with the trio of students and the thief. "You two went missing, so we decided to look for you too. But I see you've found Keith, and the missing Stylers. Well done!"  
"I..." Everyone turned to the man, who finally wanted to speak. "I'm sorry! I just...I wanted to be a Ranger so bad, but I never really did anything about it...I thought if I had a Styler, then maybe, just maybe..."  
"That's no excuse," Ms. April scolded. "Anyone can be a Ranger, if they are willing to commit and do some hard work. If you can do that, you too can become a Ranger. There is no age limit for our school's enrollment. I think you should go home and really think about what you want to do, think about how you can become a Ranger the proper way."  
The man was grateful, but also surprised. "You're just...letting me go? Just like that?" When Ms. April confirmed her statement with a nod, he gave a big smile before he left the school grounds, thanking them.

-x-

"I see...so all of that happened in my absence?" Principal Lamont asked, though he wasn't really looking for an answer. He, Ms. April, Mr. Kincaid, and the trio were all gathered in the staff room. Based on the testimonies provided by Rhythmi, Grace, and Ms. April, Keith's innocence was proven, despite how much Mr. Kincaid tried to find some way to blame him.

"I must say, I was impressed by Rhythmi's faith in her friend," Ms. April said, causing the girl in question to blush in embarrassment. "That kind of faith is essential in any relationship, but especially in that between a Ranger and an Operator." She turned to Grace then, saying, "Grace, your teamwork with Rhythmi and your capture were outstanding. I could tell right away by the big smile on the Slakoth's face. Grace was feeling a little embarrassed too, but still thanked her.

"As for you, Keith," Ms. April began again, "You are much too reckless. You need to learn to rely on your colleagues more. There is only so much you can do by yourself. However, you did a very good thing today, and I'm very proud of you."

Her words seemed to go right through him, as it sounded like Keith was mumbling to himself. It didn't sound good, whatever he was saying. "Rhythmi?" he turned to the girl once he was more focused. "I appreciate how much you believed in me. It meant a lot. You too, Grace."

"Like the thief today, perhaps there is darkness in all of our hearts," Lamont suddenly said, getting everyone's attention. "What's important is to never give in to that darkness." Everyone nodded in agreement, save for Mr. Kincaid. It looked like he was muttering to himself just as Keith had been a doing a few minutes ago... "There is an ancient word in the Almia region: vatonage. It means 'to reawaken the light that has been submerged in darkness'. Perhaps that is what you witnessed here today. Why, look at you three, your eyes shine with the brilliance of gems. Oh my, it seems I've rambled on...I do believe it's time for everyone to return to class."

-x-

A few days had passed since the thief was freed. Grace had received another letter, this one telling her that her grandfather was successful in finding a house in a little town called Chicole Village, and he had moved there, along with her brother, the other day. She wrote back how excited she was to see them (not to mention her Riolu!), but in the back of her mind that question he had asked in the last letter weighed heavy.

"Today..." Ms. April started saying, catching Grace's attention. She had been lost in her thoughts, again, it seemed. "Today you will take your one-day internships. You will get to experience what's it like to be a Ranger, an Operator, or a Mechanic." How many students wanted to be Mechanics, anyway? There was a boy in her class that wanted to, but he was the only one Grace knew of. "For that, you will have to go out to the facilities you have signed up for. Please be careful, and don't take any detours on the way. That goes for on the way back, too." She then went behind her desk to work on something, so the students were left to their own devices.  
"I'm off to the Ranger Union," Rhythmi announced, getting up out of her chair so she could say goodbye to her friends before heading off. "The Ranger Union is really far from here, so I have to leave soon. I'll see you two this evening!"  
Once she left, Keith approached Grace. "You're off to Vientown, right?"  
She nodded. "That's right." Vientown was where Crawford was stationed. She was looking forward to seeing him again, if only for the sense of familiarity.

"We may as well go together. No use in going separate ways if we've got the same destination," he said.  
"Good idea."

-x-

"Little Tim? That you?" They had made it to the area of the grounds where the gate was, this was the area where the thief from the other day had been caught, but Keith noticed that someone was up a tree, with two Bidoof hopping around at the base. "What are you doing? Playing with some Bidoof?"  
"No, that's not it! Can't you tell what you're seeing?!" exclaimed the man, Little Tim was apparently his name. "These Bidoof are attacking me!" The Bidoof hopped around the tree happily. "They're going to maul me, I can tell!"

No matter which way Grace looked at it, they were definitely not trying to attack him. "They look like they want to play..."  
"That's easy for you to say! I won't deny it, they're going to maul me! I'm scared, even deathly a-scared of Pokemon!"  
"But the Bidoof are so cute..." Keith whispered, before turning to Grace telling her who this strange man was. "Little Tim is the milkman around here, but he's afraid of Pokemon. They love him, on the other hand."  
"Pokemon love milk," Grace said. "The smell is probably what attracts them."  
"Good point." Keith nodded. "These Bidoof do seem kind of agitated, though...and it's a Pokemon Ranger's job to always provide help where it's needed. You capture one, I'll get the other."  
As planned, the duo went after one Bidoof each, capturing and releasing them in less than a minute. For a student who had only been there for a little more than a month, Grace was getting pretty good at this.

Deeming it safe, Little Tim climbed down from the tree. "That scared me a-plenty. I was good and scared, but I was saved. I was saved, but I'm still good and scared. But I owe both of you a big thanks. Those Bidoof were out to maul me."

"It wasn't any trouble," Grace said, even though this was probably making them late. Little Tim gave her a look like she had grown a second head, but that was because they had never met before.  
Keith did the honors. "This is Grace. She came from Sinnoh to become a Ranger. She's awesome at doing captures...second only to me, of course."  
Little Tim nodded. "A new student, you say? Well, my name's Little Tim. I sure do owe you a big thanks for saving me. I run a small dairy farm with my family in Vientown. You should come calling one day. Our young'uns would love that."  
"Little Tim's got a bunch of kids," Keith explained. "His wife's famous around here, too."

"I surely won't forget you saving me. You'll make fine Rangers, I'm sure of it!" He thanked them one more time before he went off, back to his farm presumably.

"Is that a little girl?" Grace asked as she and Keith came upon the bridge. It would lead them to the route which would take them to Vientown, but at the moment there was a little girl that needed their attention.  
"Are you lost?" Keith asked her. She couldn't have been older than nine...what was she doing out here all by herself?  
The girl shook her head. "I came to see my big brother, but..."  
"Who is your brother?" If they knew him, they could take her to him. She opened her mouth to answer Grace's question, but grew quiet when she noticed two other students approaching. When she realized who it was, she got a happy smile on her face as she exclaimed, "Isaac!"  
"Melody? What are you doing here?" Isaac asked as his sister hugged him. He and Ponte, a boy known as the school's resident conflicted marshmallow boy – for the sheer fact that he had no idea what he really wanted to do with his life – were probably on the way to their own internship sites, but they sure didn't expect to see the little girl on the way, if the look on Isaac's face said anything.  
"Melody, I told you not to leave Pueltown by yourself! It's not safe," Isaac said. For a split second Grace was tempted to ask where he had been, as she had failed to see him around school, but decided not to on the count of a family moment.

"I'm sorry! I just wanted to see you so bad..." Grace was afraid she was going to cry...if there was one thing she couldn't handle, it was little kids crying.  
"Let me introduce you to my friends," Isaac said in a soothing voice, before he led Melody to the front of the group. "This is Ponte, Keith, and Grace."  
"Hi!" Melody said happily.  
"It's nice to meet you, Melody." Grace smiled. Melody had calmed down, no longer looking like she was about to cry.  
"Melody?" asked Isaac. "It's okay, I'm not angry with you. You're still a little kid, so that's why I worry about you so much. Thanks for coming to meet me. We'll go back together." Melody let out a cheer at that, and the siblings left the scene, Ponte following close behind.

"Aw, Melody's adorable. I can tell Isaac cares about her a lot." Grace said once they had gone. "They remind me or me and my brother, actually."  
"You have a brother?"  
"I never...?" she paused, noting the reaction Keith gave her. "I guess not. Yeah, I do. He's back in Sinnoh with my grandfather."  
"Funny, you don't seem the sibling type," Keith laughed. "Come on, we're running late. We'll look bad if we don't get there soon."

-x-

When they got to Vientown, they went to the base right away. However, it was completely empty. No one in sight, Grace briefly wondered if they were at the right place. Where was everyone?  
"Hello?" Keith called. "We're from the Ranger School!"  
"Oh, I'm sorry!" said a voice from further within the base. It was the Operator. "I had to bend to get something, so I didn't see you come in."  
"Where is everyone?" Grace asked, following Keith over to the desk.  
"Everyone is out on an extremely important mission," she explained. It must have been something special if everyone had to go out for it. "I am to pass on a package from our Leader to you." The Operator slid a package across the desk, Keith going to pick it up.

"What is it?" he asked.  
"I'm not sure exactly. All I know is that it is extremely vital to the mission," she sighed. "Be very gentle with it. Don't tip it on the side or upside down. Everyone is waiting at Breeze Hill for you."  
"Breeze Hill?" Grace asked. "How do we get there?"  
"From the base, go west. Follow the signs and you'll be there in no time." After thanking her, Grace and Keith left the base, following her directions and heading west.

-x-

Shortly after that, they came upon a small beach. There were a couple of Shellos slithering around, but they were doing their own thing and paid no attention to them.  
"Grace, can you carry this thing?" Keith suddenly asked. "I'm gonna end up dropping it..."  
She did as he asked, but wasn't sure if she would be able to do a better job. She noticed that Keith's hands were shaking. She was going to say something to reassure his nerves, but was interrupted by the cries of what sounded like three different Pokemon.

Further up, off of the beach, there was an old man and a Munchlax, a Starly, and a Pachirisu. They looked to be wild, but looks could be deceiving. The man was cooing words at them gently, apparently he had just got done feeding them. True to the nature of a Munchlax, it wanted more food right away.  
"Oh?" the man said once he noticed Keith and Grace approaching. "By the looks of your uniforms, I see that you are students of the school! On your one-day internship, I would guess." When they nodded in unison, he continued, "Then I will give you a test. What is a partner Pokemon?"  
"That's easy," Grace said. "A Pokemon that is especially friendly toward a Ranger, and they go everywhere with them."  
"Correct! And a Ranger can only have one partner?"  
Keith took that one. "No, they can have multiple. But they can only have one with them at a time."  
"That is also correct! It's said that if you meet at Nabiki Beach, you'll be friends for life." Grace thought back to what Crawford had said that day. "You'll both be fine Rangers, I'm sure. Take care now."  
They thanked him as they went on, the three Pokemon moving out of the way so they could pass.

-x-

"I'm so nervous," Keith finally admitted. He had been shaking the whole time, though now it was more noticeable then ever.  
"It'll be okay," Grace said to him, hoping to calm him like she had planned earlier. "They're probably feeling just as nervous as you are. Take a deep breath."  
He did as she suggested, taking in a large breath through the mouth, then slowly exhaling from the nose. "That feels a little better. Okay, let's go!" He ran up the stairs to Breeze Hill, leaving Grace behind. Because she was carrying the all-important package, she had to go slower. She didn't admit it, as she was far too concerned with Keith's well-being, but she was feeling just as nervous as he was. She pushed her thoughts aside as she went up the stairs, following after her friend.

* * *

**Reviews make me work faster :o**


	5. Chapter 5

**Thank you everyone for reviewing. **  
**Last chapter I was made aware of a problem with the paragraphs. I think I figured out what was wrong so please let me know if it's been fixed. **

* * *

V. _Field Work_

It seemed that the nerves had caught up to Keith, as the boy was practically frozen in place far enough away so that no one noticed him, but close enough so he could see the Rangers.

Thanks to his frozen state, Grace caught up to him quickly, even if she was moving slower than normal. "Are you still nervous?"  
"A little, yeah," he said. He took a deep breath and ran into the open, shouting "Hellomeetcha!" It took all of Grace's willpower not to laugh.  
One of the Rangers, a muscular man, came over to them. "Did you really just say 'hellomeetcha'? You nervous?" Keith laughed nervously, though he was starting to calm down now that he had made himself known. "You're from the school, right? Keith and Grace?"  
"That's us," Grace answered. "And you're...Barlow?" She recalled the person who called Crawford that day, and the voice seemed to fit.  
"Heh," he smirked. "Lucky guess. Anyway! You already know me and Crawford. That there is Luana, our second-year Ranger." Luana was the Ranger with the Buneary that had came for Crawford on the Mantine mission. "And over there is Elaine, our Mechanic."  
"Hi," Elaine greeted, waving. "Don't worry if you can't remember all of these names."  
"So..." Barlow started. "The package. Is it safe?"  
"Right here, sir," Grace said, handing over the package. Barlow took it gratefully and put it on the ground, in the middle of a suspiciously-placed blanket.  
"It's about time!" Crawford exclaimed. "I'm starving!"  
At first Grace was extremely confused, but when Barlow opened up the box – revealing a picnic basket – she began to understand...somewhat.  
"No wonder we weren't allowed to flip it," Keith noted. He understood right away,

Grace on the other hand still didn't know exactly what was going on. The package was...lunch?  
"Sorry for tricking you," Barlow said. "It was all Crawford's idea."  
"It's okay," replied Grace, smiling a little at Crawford's protest. Everyone then settled down onto the blanket to have some of the food. It reminded her a little of the initiation, this prank.

The get-together was soon interrupted, however, by a panicked-looking boy. He looked around for a moment before his eyes settled on the Rangers. "Rangers! I need help! Some Pokemon went crazy on the beach! They're surrounding my girlfriend and won't let her go!"  
"Don't worry, we'll take care of it," Barlow said, causing a surge of relief to go through the boy, it showed clearly on his face. "You hear him, guys? Lunch will have to wait!"

Back on Nabiki Beach, they found a rather odd sight. The three Pokemon from before – Starly, Munchlax, and Pachirisu – and the two Shellos were circling around a girl.  
"What the...?" Grace muttered.  
"They look like they could be dancing..." Luana suggested, though she didn't sound so convinced in herself.  
"They're normally all so docile," said the old man from earlier. "I don't know what's gotten into them. They're good Pokemon, really."  
"Alright, folks!" Barlow shouted. "Crawford and I will handle the Shellos. Luana, Keith, and Grace – you get the other three!"

At first, capturing Starly, Munchlax, and Pachirisu proved difficult – Keith and Luana didn't know which of the Pokemon to go for, Grace helped them with some...persuasion. She put her attention on capturing Pachirisu, and was pleased to see that it didn't take long for Keith and Luana to make up their minds. Keith caught Munchlax, and Luana took care of Starly. Soon enough, all five of the rampaging Pokemon were captured and released.

The girl they were surrounding was reunited with her boyfriend, both of them very happy that she was saved. They hugged for a moment before they faced the Rangers.  
"Any idea of what happened?" Barlow asked. Grace noticed that the Pokemon trio had gone back up the stairs to the old man, where he seemed to be assuring them that everything was okay. If what he had said was true, then they were normally calm and tame. What made them act so unlike themselves?  
"I saw a cargo ship in the distance," the girl offered. "Then they started acting weird. I think they were startled by the ship."  
"Could be," Barlow mused. "Well, it's mission clear either way. Now that everything is back to normal, we'll be on our way. Thank care, folks." He was about to leave, leading the group, but suddenly stopped. "Wait! We still have to clean up after our lunch."  
Crawford and Luana stopped in place, that fact also came back to them. In all the excitement, Grace had forgotten about it too.  
"We'll take care of it," Barlow said. "Think of it as a 'sorry' for pulling that prank on you. You two go back to the base."

-x-

"Grace, Keith, it's been a real pleasure meeting you," Barlow said back at the base. "It would be great if you guys got assigned here." Crawford, Elaine, and Luana were putting the picnic supplies away in the other room, so they weren't able to voice their thoughts. There was no doubt that they agreed with their Leader, though.  
Barlow wished them well and they were on their way, but an older man in a lab coat came into the base just as they were about to leave.

"Oh?" said the man. "Students of the school?" They nodded and he went on. "We had a student at the Union today. What was her name...Misery...?"  
Misery? "...do you maybe mean Rhythmi?" Grace said, furrowing her brow in confusion.  
"Ah, yes, that was it." The man nodded. How could you mistake Rhythmi for Misery...? "Take care on your way back."  
Keith thanked him and they were on their way.

-x-

Grace and Keith had been going along the bridge, back to the school, when they heard the call of a familiar voice.  
"Yoo hoo! Rangers in training!" It was Rhythmi, who ran up to her friends, looking eager to share the news of her day. "How did your internships go?"  
"Awesomely," Keith said right away. "We got a mission right of the bat. We had to – "

Grace cut him off. "We can't give away any details. It's top secret." She winked at Keith and after a moment of confusion, gave a nod of understanding.  
"Well, my day was great too! But Professor Hastings kept mistakenly calling me Misery, so that was weird...anyway, we can talk about it later. It's going to get dark soon."

-x-

Not even two weeks later did the time come. It was time for the students to leave the Ranger School, and embark on their own journeys in the world. Yes, it was graduation day.

Ms. April said her goodbyes before she let the students talk among themselves, while they still had time before the ceremony began.  
"I got assigned to Fiore." When Grace heard those words, she felt her heart sink. She had been assigned to Vientown, so she was looking forward to seeing everyone from their internship again. When she heard Keith's news, though, her good mood vanished.  
"What...?" she said in disbelief. Rhythmi was going to Fiore too...how would she manage without her two friends? She hated goodbyes...even thinking about leaving made her sad.

"It'll be okay," Keith said. "Make sure you tell Barlow and the others I said hi, okay?" He smiled, trying to cheer her up.  
"Yeah." She sniffed, trying not to cry. This wasn't goodbye...it was more like a...see you later. Yeah...

About an hour later was when the ceremony officially started. The hall was decorated with flowers and banners, and everyone was gathered in front of the stairs.

Principal Lamont was up on the 'stage', which was really just the small area where the stairs connected to the ground floor. He cleared his throat before speaking. "Congratulations. As of this moment, you are official graduates of the Ranger School. Today you will all leave this place and journey out in the world, working hard to make your dreams a reality. We have done everything we can to help you begin this journey, now it is up to you to finish it. I only have one thing to request of you all: please don't forget to smile. You may look back on your time here, remember how you are grown...but please always remember that advice. Never forget to smile. Thank you and congratulations."  
"Thank you, Principal Lamont," Mr. Kincaid said. "I will now call upon the student who has been chosen as this graduating class's valedictorian. That would be the best student in the school, Isaac."  
Isaac made his way onto the stage and began his speech. "Like Principal Lamont said, today we are leaving this haven in search of our dreams. There are many people I would like to thank, on behalf of the entire class, who helped us along the way. To Principal Lamont, who watched over us...to Janice, who was like a mother to us all...and to all the books at the library...! Thank you so much." He got off the stage and went back to his spot in the group.

Normally Grace would be tearing up, because, as said, she hated goodbyes. There was something...off about this ceremony though. She couldn't place it, but it seemed very ominous.

"Now I would like to call one student who will be the representative for the class," said Ms. April. "Grace, would you come up here please?"  
If she wasn't focused before, she definitely was then. For that moment she forgot about the sense of foreboding and began to go on the stage, briefly aware of Keith congratulating her. But at the sound of some sort of explosion, she flinched and froze in place.  
"I'll...I'll go see what that was!" Mr. Kincaid said as he went downstairs to the basement. The students were all scattered and in a frenzy, even though Ms. April was doing her best to keep everyone calm. Grace returned to the audience, nerves racking. What was that?

She got her answer a few moments later. Like they were on some sort of cue, two Tangrowth appeared from the downstairs staircase, causing panic to spread to everyone, making them more scared than they already were. Someone voiced their worry over Mr. Kincaid, but most were screaming out of fear over the Pokemon. The group fled the stage, running to the other side of the school, nearing the front door.

The Tangrowth banged on the floor with their arms, obviously upset over something. Where did they even come from...? The energies they were giving off were so angry, yet they were somewhat clouded at the same time...it didn't make any sense. She wanted to protect everyone, fearing for their safety, she wished she was further along in her Guardian training. Then, maybe, she would have been able to form a barrier with her aura, even a little one...  
"Grace, we have to capture these things!" Keith suddenly said, pulling her from her thoughts. She looked back at the ground for a moment, taking in the scared looks on everyone's faces. "If we don't, no one else will!"  
"My thoughts exactly!" Grace shouted as she aimed at one the Tangrowth, beginning her attempt to capture it. The two of them shot their capture discs at the same time, both of them spinning around the two large Pokemon with such speed it was a miracle that their arms didn't fall off.

The Tangrowth tried to intervene, trying to hit the Grace's capture line with its vine-like arms, but it was unsuccessful. In minutes, they were captured.

The crisis was averted.

"I'm sorry, sir..." Mr. Kincaid said to Principal Lamont, slightly stuttering. "I was unable to determine what agitated those Tangrowth."  
"No one got hurt. That is the most important thing, and it is all I truly care about. Grace, Keith, you both took charge in a dangerous situation, and that is admirable. On behalf of the school, I thank you." He nodded toward the duo. "Ms. April, if you will?"  
Ms. April also nodded before she continued what she was saying before the Tangrowth had appeared. "I will now call one student to be the representative for this class. Grace, step forward, please."  
Grace got up on the stage – feeling everyone's eyes on her made her nervous, but it didn't bother her as much as it would have before – and accepted the certificate from Principal Lamont. She then went back to the audience, showing the certificate to Keith and Rhythmi, who expressed great interest in it.

"Congratulations, everyone!" Lamont said one last time, as everyone began to applaud. "You've all graduated!"

-x-

"Is this the right house...?" Grace muttered to herself. It was getting dark, and not knowing where else to go, she tried her best to find the house that her grandfather had talked about in his letter. It was easy finding Chicole Village (it was only a short distance from Vientown), and she didn't begin her work until tomorrow, so why not? She was about to knock, but the door opened before she could.

Grace was now face to face with her grandfather for the first time in about two months. "I thought that was you, Grace," he said.  
"Your senses are as strong as ever." She smiled softly. Her eyes were slightly red – as she had been crying earlier – but she hoped in the dark he wouldn't notice. She silently hoped that her aura wouldn't reveal it either, doing her best to mask it.

He looked like he was going to say something else, but he was pushed out of the way by what appeared to be a smallish blue blob. The blob tackled Grace so hard she fell to the ground.

"Yes, it's me, Nyx," she said between playful licks on her face. Nyx was her Riolu. She probably missed her the most out of everyone.

'_I missed you so much!_' came Nyx's voice in her head. Oh, how long it had been since she heard her voice. No one else could speak to her like Grace could, so it must have been very lonely for her.

"Nyx has been waiting for this day for a long time," said her grandfather. "As has Benjamin...as have I." He brought her into the house, and with Nyx practically hanging off of her shoulder, Grace followed him.

'_I knew you would come today_,' Nyx said, jumping off of Grace once they were inside the house.  
"Is that so? That's not surprising," Grace said as she pet her on the head. Riolu may have been considerably weaker than Lucario, both physically and when it came to aura, but Nyx had always been a powerful one. She must have sensed Grace before she even entered the town.

Frankly, Grace was exhausted. Not only had she been crying her eyes out (the realization that she probably wouldn't see her friends again – at least not for a long time – started to sink in), but the day had been so hectic. What happened at the graduation was still fresh in her head. She still wondered where those Tangrowth came from, and what Mr. Kincaid had to do with it, but at that moment she could care less about him. He was out of her life now, and unless she went back to school for whatever reason, she would never see him again. She cared way more about those Tangrowth. They were big Pokemon, sure, but they were normally calm and friendly towards people. It was just like what happened at the beach the other day...

Grace dismissed the thoughts from her head, knowing that she would have more time to figure it out later. Right now, she just wanted something to eat before she settled into a comfortable sleep.

* * *

**Since I've introduced Nyx, as well as Grace's family, I think this would be a good time to explain how the aura is going to work in this story. This will also apply to any other things that I write that involve aura. **

**Now then...if you're like me, and you've studied aura, you know that Pokemon is kinda inaccurate.  
In my...headcanon, I guess you could call it, I have things that are based on what you could do in the Pokemon world, but I've taken a more realistic approach. So, here is a list of the powers:  
\- can see and sense aura  
\- can read aura, can use it to read emotions and detect lies  
\- can project aura as barriers or attacks (very rarely can a human use it as an attack)  
\- can transfer aura for healing purposes, but this can be fatal to the user**

**Alright. Now I'll explain why Nyx is able to speak. She's using telepathy, sorta. See what I think is that if you're around Pokemon all your life, you can understand them. Nyx and Grace are extremely close, therefore Grace can understand her. More specifically, she's using her aura, but only Grace can hear her. Grace can do the same thing, so they could have conversations in their head if they wanted to. But they can only do it with each other, because they are so close. Grace wouldn't be able to speak this way to any other Pokemon, and Nyx wouldn't be able to speak to any other human. They would just hear Riolu noises.  
This is also what I think made it so Lucario could speak, because honestly why would a non-Psychic Pokemon be able to use telepathy (unless it was a legendary, which Lucario is not) ? But Lucario could project himself better because he was evolved and we all know that a Lucario has more power than a Riolu, therefore everyone was able to hear him. When and if he was a Riolu when Sir Aaron met him, upon training his aura, he would have only been able to use the telepathy like Nyx is doing with Grace.  
I hope that makes sense :3**

**Reviews make me work faster :o**


	6. Chapter 6

**:3 ~**

* * *

VI. _The Knack of Things_

"Whoa, you're early!" Luana exclaimed as soon as Grace entered the Vientown Ranger Base. "I was planning on meeting up with you, but I guess that won't be needed."

"Guess not," Grace said, smiling. She had always been an early riser, and with the added excitement of being a _real _Pokemon Ranger, she had woken up even earlier than usual. Despite Nyx's protests, she left as soon as possible. She knew that Nyx just wanted to spend more time with her, but if Grace could get a head start, nothing would stand in her way.

"Grace, you little so-and-so! What made you come here?" Barlow said playfully before he started laughing. This...well, it took her off guard. Then again, it was Barlow. She wasn't exactly expecting him to be anything like her grandfather. "Welcome aboard! And congrats on graduating!"

"We heard about what happened at the graduation ceremony," Elaine said from the sidelines. Grace noticed that there was a smudge of oil on her cheek, and briefly wondered if she had been doing something or if she simply had forgotten to wash her face. "And of your heroics."  
"I heard Keith became a Ranger too," Crawford added. "But he's in Fiore?" Grace nodded in confirmation, but thankfully he dropped the subject once he noticed the sad look on her face."Oh, that's right! About today's lunch delivery..." She knew he was joking, but that incident with the lunch prank still caused a wave of embarrassment to flow through her. Red faced, she turned toward Barlow, hoping he would say something to distract her.

Stepping up to the task, Barlow said, "You'll have to get used to Crawford's jokes. It's going to become a regular thing for you now. Okay, let's get you started on your first day. The changing rooms are back there."  
Grace nodded and walked to the door on the far end of the room, navigating a few hallways before finding the changing room that Barlow mentioned. Inside was a brand new Pokemon Ranger's uniform, and unless there was another new Ranger, it was for her.

Ten minutes or so passed, and Grace emerged from the door, looking like a completely different person in her new Ranger's uniform. It was similar to the school one, but it was red and white rather than green and blue. It felt a little weird wearing the uniform, but that was just because it was new. Clothes were just shoes in that aspect – you had to break them in.

"Does it fit okay?" Barlow asked. "Nothing too tight, nothing too loose?"

"Everything _seems_ to be okay..." Grace said, her voice a bit shaky. "Sorry. I guess I'm still a little nervous."

"I know how you feel..." Luana said, sighing. "Reminds me of me a year ago."

Grace was only half-focusing on what Barlow was saying, as she was wondering if she had spent enough time calming down or not. She had went into a little bit of a crying fit back in the changing room, mostly because Keith and Rhythmi were in Fiore and she was still in Almia. There was that, and then there was how tense she was. She had to do something to get rid of some of that tension, and crying was always good for that. Despite how sad she was about her friends, she had to remain positive. She had to hold on to the hope that one day they would meet again.

As a matter of fact, it was her crying spell that made her take so long in the changing rooms; in reality it only took her two or three minutes to change. The rest of the time had been dedicated to breathing exercises and splashing cold water on her face.

But they didn't need to know about that.  
"...your Capture Styler." Back in reality, Barlow was handing Grace an official Styler. Seeing it reminded her of that time when they had those Stylers in class, for that demonstration. Red instead of green, just like her new uniform. "That officially makes you a certified Pokemon Ranger. With that, you can also use Pokemon Assists, a feature you couldn't use on the school Styler."  
"Oh, right, I remember that," Grace said, nodding. "You can use a Pokemon's power to help you with captures. There are 17 types, just like Pokemon types. They each vary depending on the Pokemon's type and overall power. For example, a Charmander's Pokemon Assist wouldn't be as powerful as say, an Arcanine's."  
"That's right," he praised. Grace wasn't expecting to go into a mini-lecture like that, but Barlow didn't seem to mind.

"You sure do know a lot for a rookie," Luana said. "A lot more than I knew when I first started out, that's for sure." Grace didn't say anything, choosing to shrug instead.

Barlow suddenly took on a more serious tone. "Grace, do you remember what happened on the beach that day?"

"With the Pokemon?" Grace asked, and he nodded. How could she forget? Pokemon acting 'strange' (by human standards) from time to time, but what she had witnessed that day was like nothing she had ever heard of.

He continued. "Ever since then, a lot of strange things have been happening around here. Vientown has a peaceful reputation, so no one was expecting any of this. It's up to us Rangers to keep everyone safe. That goes for all of you," he paused, gesturing to the entire crew, "I'm expecting big things from you, Grace. Alright, let's get you started with a mission! I want you to..."

-x-

For her first mission, Grace was to go door-to-door and deliver the Vien Tribune, a newspaper that the Rangers wrote themselves to keep the townspeople of Vientown and Chicole Village up to date with local events. Usually Crawford did it himself, but today she would be helping him.  
"Disappointed that your first mission is a paper route?" Crawford asked, in an attempt to lighten the mood. The air had been very tense.

Grace shrugged. "Not really. I just started, so I wasn't really expecting anything big."  
"Who knows, maybe someday you'll be doing something grand," he offered. He was probably still trying to cheer her up from earlier. This was the first time they had talked since they left the base. Grace wanted to start the mission in Chicole Village, mostly because she wanted to visit her family, but also so they could just right back to the base after they were down in Vientown.

"Grace! What brings you back so soon?" Ben's voice called. He was on the couch, but once he noticed his sister enter the house he hopped up to meet her, Aidan close behind.

"I already got my first mission," she explained, pulling out one of the rolled up newspapers from the tote bag she had been given. "Where's Grandpa? I have to give him this. Oh, by the way, this is Crawford. Crawford, this is my brother Ben."

As the two shook hands and said their hellos (while Budew and Aidan were doing the same, chirping at each other), Grace braced herself. Any second now...

'_Grace! You're back!_' Just as she had on the first day, Nyx pounced, but this time Grace was ready so she didn't fall.

"Heh, hi there," she said. She gave her a few pets before she placed her back on the ground.

"Who's this little rascal?" Crawford asked, crouching down to be on the same eye level as the Riolu. "Is she yours?"  
"Nyx, Crawford. Crawford, Nyx. I know his hair is big...but he's not scary, I promise." Nyx had been hiding behind Grace's leg, she had always been shy around strangers. But she showed herself once she knew who this guy was, once she could attach a name to the face.

'_Nice to meet you,_' she said, holding out her paw so she could shake Crawford's hand. He was slightly surprised by this, but complied anyway.

"She said it's nice to meet you," Grace said, quickly translating for them. Whenever someone new got involved it was always a bit awkward with the whole translating thing. "And she's not _exactly_ mine...um..." How to explain this? "I'm not a Trainer...but she's still mine. Does that make sense?"  
"It sure does. Say, you're a Ranger now. Why not have her be your partner?"

'_Partner?_'  
"I think that would be a fine idea," came another voice, from someone who had just entered the room. It was Grace's grandfather. "Nyx is always talking of how much she misses you."  
"That does sound like a good idea...what do you think, Nyx?" She didn't get a verbal answer, but from the way that she excitedly jumped into her arms, she knew that it was safe to say yes. "Okay then, from now on you're my partner!"

"Very good then," her grandfather said, nodding in approval. "This will most certainly help your bond grow stronger."

Ben was sitting on the floor with Aidan and Crawford's Budew, watching the scene while they circled around him. It reminded Grace of that day with the Pokemon on the beach. She hadn't realized it at first, but the circling looked just like the motions a Ranger makes with a Styler when capturing. "Oh, that's right!" Ben suddenly exclaimed. "Grace, what about your mission?"  
Grace was so caught up in all the excitement that she had nearly forgotten herself. "Here, Grandpa, this is the Vien Tribune. This is Crawford, by the way." She handed him the newspaper and made a gesture toward Crawford, who gave a wave to the older man.

"Crawford..." her grandfather started, saying the name slowly as if to test it. "I trust you will look after her."

Slightly annoyed, Grace bid a quick farewell before practically dragging Crawford out of there.

"What was that back there?" Crawford asked, lightly jogging to catch up to Grace. She was still feeling rather irritated about her grandfather, and marched away from her house to another one. Nothing else was on her mind but completing the mission.

'_Grace..._' Nyx started. '_You should tell him._' At first she thought Nyx was talking about the Aura Guardian status that they both had, but after a few seconds she realized that she just wanted her to open up to Crawford about what had her so angry.  
"Sorry." Grace sighed. "He's always like that...he doesn't think I can take care of myself."

"Well, you're just gonna have to prove him wrong!" he exclaimed. He had such a sunny disposition, it was admirable. And it did make her feel better.

"I've got Nyx with me now. There's no way I can fail." She nodded before knocking on the door to the house she had found herself in front of.

"Hi, we're here to deliever the Vien Tribune," Grace quickly said. "I'm Grace, I just moved in a few houses down. I guess we're neighbors now?"  
"It's nice to meet you," said the man. "We just moved here too, actually."

"Hello!" the woman said, in a perky voice. There was the woman, the man, and a boy who looked about Ben's age. The boy was wearing a blue hoodie and he had a somewhat vacant look on his face. Once he saw Nyx, however, that look vanished without a trace.  
"Oh wow, you have a Riolu!" he said with a big smile. Grace was amazed at the sight, simply seeing a Pokemon made him change so much. It made her smile too.  
'_I have a name!_' Nyx protested, but of course the boy couldn't understand her.

"Calm down there," Grace said, laughing. She took in the sight of the boy's aura, it was radiant just as any young person's aura should be. There was something off about it though...it didn't give her a bad feeling like Mr. Kincaid's had, but there was something that she couldn't place...

She wouldn't bring it up. This boy may had liked Riolu, but that didn't mean he knew anything about aura. Telling him that his aura had many flecks of blue would probably only confuse him. She wondered about it, yes, but it wasn't her business. She was not an Aura Guardian, she was a Pokemon Ranger. She wrote it off as sorrow over the move and forced the topic out of her mind.

Crawford went over to hand the couple a copy of the newspaper while she explained that her Riolu's name was Nyx and that he would probably be seeing a lot more of them now that they were neighbors.

That only seemed to make the boy happier.

It hadn't taken long to get to every house, but by the time they were finished with Chicole Village it was the late afternoon. They had just lost track of the time, what with Grace introducing herself to all of her neighbors. Crawford didn't seem to mind.

They were at the last house, a house in Vientown, but when Crawford knocked on the door there was no response.

"This is Mr. Woodward's house," he stated. "He's the local woodworker. But if he's not here, then he's likely at the beach."

'_Then let's get to the beach!_' Nyx exclaimed. She had been that way the whole day, so excited over everything. Not that Grace was any different. She nodded and followed Crawford.

As Crawford predicted, they had found Mr. Woodward at the beach. Grace realized that he had been the old man that she and Keith met on their one day internship. Like that day he was surrounded by those same three Pokemon: Starly, Pachirisu, and Munchlax.

"Hm? Are you perhaps that student from the Ranger School?"  
Knowing what he meant, Grace spoke up. "Yes, that's me."

"Then I congratulate you on graduating. And I assume that Riolu by your side is your partner?"

'_That's right!_' Nyx said happily.

"She is." Grace nodded.  
"I see a strong bond between you two. Good for you." Crawford handed him his paper, and Grace thought back to what her grandfather had said. Having Nyx as her partner would allow their bond to grow even stronger...but wasn't it _already_ the strongest it could be?

-x-

"One last question, Ranger Leader Barlow." Right away, Grace was confused, and Nyx was tensing up. Who was that mystery voice? She and Crawford had returned to the base to report back to Barlow, but... "If you were to describe the Ranger's job in one word, what would it be?"

"Hm..." Barlow muttered. "That's a tough one." He then took notice to Grace and Crawford, who were patiently waiting for their turn with him, so to speak. "Oh, look who's back! That was your first mission, but I know you nailed it. That's mission clear!"  
A strange sense of accomplishment came over Grace. She had done stuff before, had been told 'job well done' before, but this time it was...different, somehow. Even though she had done a mundane job, it felt like she had done something much bigger.

"What's this? That Riolu..." Barlow asked, toward Nyx. She had been hiding behind Grace again, all the new auras were making her nervous. "What's the story here?"

"She's a longtime friend of mine," she started, "Her name is Nyx, and I've decided to make her my partner." Nyx gave a wave, still a little nervous. It was starting to fade, though.  
"Good for you. I can tell you guys will work perfectly together."

'_If he only knew_,' said the Riolu, in a teasing tone.

Barlow gave them both a smile before he turned back to the guy who was interviewing him. "I think I know what my answer is now. 'Protect'."

"Protect, eh? Interesting..." muttered the mystery man, scribbling something in the small notepad he had, the results of the interview probably. He tucked the notepad into his coat pocket before he thanked Barlow for his time, making it apparent that he was going to leave.

Before he did, however, he approached the girl and her Riolu. "Grace, right?"

For a moment, Grace was stunned, not sure if it was actually her that he was talking to. It only took her a few seconds to regain her wit, and she nodded.

"I'm Hans," he said. "I'm a news reporter in these parts. I'll wait for the day when I get to write a story about you." As soon as he left, everyone gathered around Grace and Nyx, wanting to hear about how they met, and they also wanted to know how the mission went.

Grace had been tense, perhaps out of nerves, perhaps out of reflex, but that was a thing of the past. Now, she was feeling right at home, and she knew that Nyx felt the same.

And who knows? Maybe some day she would become a legendary Ranger that people like Hans would beg to interview. As long as she had Nyx, she could do anything.

* * *

**Did you guys like what I did there, giving Kyle that cameo ?**

**Reviews make me work faster :o**


	7. Chapter 7

**Hello, all. **

**If you wanted to know, life is a thing and it happened hard. This past week has been extremely hectic for me and I hardly had the time to finish up the chapter. That's why it was heavily delayed. I also sort of rushed this one as I didn't want to keep you guys waiting any longer. If you spot any errors do let me know.**

**Just know that there will be no update this Monday. I don't know when the next update will be, I will be doing a lot of running around this week too. I'll try to get back to the regular updates next Monday.**

**But I know you guys don't really care for my excuses. You're here to read, not to listen to me complain.  
**

**Hope you enjoy.**

* * *

VII. _Strange Happenings_

"How'd you sleep?" Barlow asked Grace and Nyx when they emerged from the 'dorm' area of the Ranger Base.

"Great, thanks." Grace let out a yawn, covering her mouth with her hand. The room she had been given was a bit fancier than what she was used to, but because she had been much more tired than she realized, she fell asleep quickly.

"Are you up for a mission?"

'_This early?_' Nyx complained, but Grace hushed her (all in their heads, of course). They had been up way earlier for training before. Besides, this was their new life. They would just have to get used to it.

"What is it?"

"I need you to go with Crawford to the Marine Cave -" Just as he said that, Crawford came out of the dorm. Speak of Giratina and he shall appear, Grace's grandfather always said. Crawford wasn't much of a Giratina though. "Crawford, listen up. I need you and Grace to check out the Marine Cave. We've received reports of strange noises coming from the area."  
'_Marine Cave? Where's that?_'

"I'd like to know that, too," Grace said. Last night she had explained to everyone of the bond that she and Nyx shared, so they all knew they could understand each other. Barlow assumed that she was speaking for the Riolu. "Where's the cave?"  
"It's off of Nabiki Beach," Crawford suddenly said. It looked like he finally woke up. "You can't get to it if the tide is too high, but the tide is down this time of year."  
"Crawford's right," Barlow confirmed. "And I get the feeling this has something to do with what happened on the beach that day."  
"That's true..." Grace muttered. "They very well could be related incidents."  
'_Incident?_'

'_I'll explain later._'

-x-

"And that's what happened." Grace finished her explanation of what had happened on the beach, how the Pokemon had suddenly seemed to lose all control of themselves. Crawford helped her explain it, but he kept quiet for the most part.

'_That's so weird! I never would have guessed something like that would -'_ Nyx paused, her small ears beginning to twitch.  
"What's wrong?"

'_That noise...!_'  
"Does she hear something?" Crawford asked. "The noise Barlow was talking about?"

They entered the Marine Cave, and Grace knew right away what Nyx was talking about.

"What is that?!" she exclaimed, covering her ears. "Is that what you heard, Nyx?" No response, but she did nod. The noise seemed to be hurting her...if this is what it sounded like to Grace, she hated to think about what it sounded like to her partner. "Crawford, this had to be the noise!"  
"Look at those Pokemon!" Crawford also had his ears covered, so he was speaking a little louder than he normally did. He was talking about a few Pokemon that were running around nearby, but there was something off about them.  
'_Do you see that?_' Nyx asked, referring to the auras that the Pokemon were giving off. Though Nyx's words were shaky, and that concerned her deeply, Grace nodded. Fuzzy auras were never a good sign, and those Pokemon's auras were fuzzier than a baby Shinx.  
"They're moving like those Pokemon on the beach were..." she muttered.  
"Look out!" Crawford shouted, dodging a Zubat's attack. It dived at Grace instead, who pulled out her Styler and attempted to capture it. It only took a few seconds to complete the capture, but that was when things got weird. The Zubat flew away, like nothing had every happened in the first place.

"Huh...?" Crawford said, obviously confused about what just happened. "That's weird...you captured that Zubat properly, why didn't it work?"  
At first she thought her Styler might be broken. But Grace knew better, she knew to always think outside the box. "Maybe the noise has something to do with it? We should do something about it."  
'_Just make it stop!_' Nyx's words were much more slurred than ever; she was clearly in pain. She had her ears pressed against her head, but she still let out whines. Grace knew that she had sensitive hearing, but she never knew that one day it would come to hurt her.

"It's coming from deeper in the cave. Come on!" Crawford declared before he ran off further into the cave, toward the source of the noise. Grace and Nyx followed, eager to put an end to this.

The further they went, the louder the noise got. And the further they went, and the louder the noise got, the more Nyx seemed to be hurting. The noise was very irritating to the two Rangers, but it seemed to be causing Nyx real pain. That only encouraged Grace to figure this whole thing out quicker.

"What's that?" Crawford asked, pointing toward a red...thing. A red machine of some sort, sitting near the wall of the cave.

'_That's it! The noise is coming from there!_' Nyx pointed at the machine, yelling the best she could at it.

Grace translated. "Nyx says the machine is making the noise...we're gonna have to destroy it. I would ask Nyx to try but..."  
"Then we'll have to find another Pokemon to do it," Crawford said in a determined voice. It seemed very out of character for him, but the situation was desperate.

"The noise is very faint. Can you hear it?" Crawford asked. They had gone deeper into the cave, into what looked like the deepest chamber.

Grace concentrated, but no matter how hard she focused, she couldn't hear more than a faint buzzing sound. "It doesn't look like it's affecting the Pokemon here either," she noted, looking at the nearby Geodude, which quickly crunched itself up when it saw them, trying to look as much like a normal rock as possible. "Nyx, are you okay?"  
'_I've been better..._'

Grace was going to say something, perhaps a confirmation of her relief, but that was cut off by the cry of some sort of Pokemon. "What was that?"

Crawford walked over to a nearby rock, Grace following. There was a faint outline of an entrance around the rock, implying that it had fallen down at some point. And there was a Pokemon trapped behind there.

"It sounded like a Gastrodon." Crawford knew what he was talking about, he was a Pokemon Ranger and all, but that didn't stop Grace from moving past the rock with her aura to see what she could see. Like he had said, there was in fact a medium-sized Pokemon back there, and it was the right shape for a Gastrodon.

She felt bad for it. "Nyx, can you use Force Palm on this rock?"

'_Yeah, sure_,' Nyx said, nodding. Now that she was no longer being affected by the strange machine's noises, she could focus enough to charge up an attack. One of her paws started to glow a combination of blue and yellow, the auras nearly merging themselves together but still remaining distinct. Nyx slammed her paw down on the rock, and it shattered with no difficulties.

"Impressive!" Crawford praised. Nyx looked away shyly. Like Grace, she wasn't used to getting praise for doing something so simple.

A pink and brown Gastrodon (native to the western side of Sinnoh) crawled out of the small chamber, looking confused as to why the rock suddenly vanished.

Getting an idea, Grace launched her capture disc and quickly captured the Gastrodon.

"Gastrodon, use Water Gun on that machine!" Grace commanded, before the befriended Gastrodon did just that. It released a powerful blast of water, and just as she had hoped, it destroyed the red machine. It quite literally blew up, giving off a small explosion before collapsing on itself. The slug-like Pokemon was then released, wiggling its way further into the cave. All of the nearby Pokemon who were previously hypnotized gained their senses, running off back to wherever they came from. This proved that it was in fact that machine that was causing the distress in the Pokemon.

"Okay, now let's see what this is..." Crawford approached the machine, being careful not to accidentally step on any of the nearby scattered parts. "We should take it back to the base." He tried lifting the main base of the machine, but it proved to be way too heavy for him to even get it off the ground.

'_Nyx, would you be able to carry that thing?_' Grace asked, watching Crawford give another attempt at lifting it.

'_Not likely. If I were a Lucario, maybe...'_ came the reply. Grace dropped it then, knowing what a touchy subject evolution was for the Riolu.

"It's no good." Crawford sighed, finally accepting his defeat. "I'll have to contact the strongest person in Almia to get this thing out of here."  
Grace couldn't really think of anyone who would fit that bill. Except, maybe one. "Barlow?"  
"This person beat Barlow in an arm wrestling match."

'_Whoa_,' Nyx said, while Grace didn't even reply. She merely widened her eyes, in utter awe.

Crawford gave a cheeky grin. "You two go on back to the base. I'll wait here for Almia's Strongest."

-x-

Grace and Nyx were walking up beach, on the way back to the base, when they met up with a woman with big blonde hair.

"Oh, hello, Big Bertha," Grace greeted, offering a friendly smile. Big Bertha was Little Tim's wife. They had met her yesterday when they were helping Crawford with the newspaper route. "Where are you off to?"

"Hello dear," she said. "I don't have the faintest idea why, but your Crawford called me out." Grace was easily able to put two and two together, and she and Nyx stepped out of the way so Big Bertha could get to the cave. One thing was for sure, she did _not_ want to get on this woman's bad side.

"My silly husband got all jealous," Bertha continued. "Saying I was going on a date with Crawford in the cave. So I told him that's exactly what I'm doing!" After she laughed, she went along the beach, in the direction of the Marine Cave.

-x-

"Crawford contacted us and told us what happened," Barlow said. Grace was standing at attention, but she nodded and confirmed that it was the machine that was causing the Pokemon to behave strangely. "Of course it's mission clear! And while I'm at it, I'm promoting you to Ranger Rank 1!"

There it was again. That strange sense of accomplishment that she had felt yesterday when she finished her first mission. Of course, the mission in the Marine Cave seemed like it was significantly more important than a paper route, but...Grace felt like this was something she was meant to do. She was happy that she decided to become a Pokemon Ranger, but she still had the sneaking suspicion that this incident would not be the last time that they came into contact with the strange machines.

"Grace, you should have a look at this," said Elaine, getting Grace's attention. She was holding what looked like an article from the newspaper. "It looks like your buddy Keith is making a name for himself."  
She was handed the article and skimmed over it, and found that Elaine was right. It had a picture of Keith, along with a Buizel and a Pikachu, attempting to capture a Gyarados. From what she could tell, it seemed like the same types of things were beginning to happen in Fiore. With someone like Keith over there, though, there was nothing to worry about.

Just then, Little Tim came into the base, looking really worried. "Excuse me, is there a Ranger here who has some time for me? I was hoping to get some help for a mission."

"Hello, Little Tim," Barlow greeted. "Our rookie Grace may be able to lend you a hand. I don't think we can treat this as a proper mission, though...however, we should be able to treat it as a quest."

'_A quest?_' Nyx asked, looking back and forth between Barlow and Little Tim.

As if he was answering the Riolu, Barlow then began an explanation about quests. Sometimes citizens would approach Rangers for help, and those jobs were called quests. A Ranger was to never turn down one of these jobs, if it were possible that would never happen.

"Okay then." Grace nodded. "What's the matter?"  
"Well, I'll try to keep this quick and simple," Tim began. "My wife, she had to go out to the Marine Cave, so I got told to do the milking. But you know me, deathly a-scared of Pokemon. And what's worse, our Miltank's acting all sorts of fiery. Will you help me?"

-x-

Of course Grace said yes. For one, everyone was there waiting for her answer. For two, it was the right thing to do. For three, she couldn't stand to hear of a Pokemon in need, even if it was something as simple as moody behavior. "Okay, now you say Miltank is in a bad mood...?" She, Nyx, and Little Tim were standing just outside of the dairy farm, with only the wooden fence between them and the Miltank. Like Tim said, she did seem to be agitated about something, stomping around and blowing air out of her nose every few minutes.

The Ranger and her Riolu hopped the fence, taking careful steps toward Miltank.  
"Miltank?" Grace asked, announcing herself. Once the Pokemon knew that she was no longer alone, she got even angrier. She took on the guise of a Tauros, running her hooves over the ground, looking ready to charge.

'_Why is she so upset?_'  
"I don't know, but I'm gonna have to capture her. That should calm her down..." Grace readied her Styler, aiming at Miltank. She charged, and they only managed to dodge just in time. Getting her barrings, Grace took that small chance of momentary confusion to shoot the disc and begin the capture.

The capture proved difficult right away. Miltank kept trying to attack the line, and Grace was able to avoid the attacks, but the process was beginning to cause her wrist to burn.

"Nyx, help me out here!" she called, and Nyx looked about as confused as Miltank had a few moments ago. "Force Palm, use it on the line!"  
Now that she knew what to do, Nyx charged up the attack and shot a large yellow stream of energy toward the line from her paw. Once it came into contact with the line, it changed to a sort of orange-brown color, and it got considerably more powerful. With Nyx's Pokemon Assist in play, it was much easier to complete the capture. Within seconds, it was done, and Miltank was finally starting to settle down.

-x-

"This is the machine," Crawford started, "Pokemon near it seemed to be placed under some sort of hypnosis. And if they were captured, they weren't befriended."  
"Pokemon under hypnosis?" Luana asked. "Impossible to capture?"  
"Let me take this apart for analysis!" Elaine's eyes shined with an unmistakable sense of excitement, but Barlow stopped her before she even started.  
"We should have Prof. Hastings from the Union analyze it. But the Professor is off on business in Fiore right now, so we'll have to wait for him. It shouldn't take long, once he hears about this...oh, hey, Grace! You're back!"  
Grace had been observing the scene from near the base's front door, but everyone turned to greet her once Barlow had spoken up.

"Did you get Miltank to calm down?" he asked. "What was the problem?"  
"She had a small thorn stuck behind her ear," Grace explained. "Everything's okay now." Big Bertha, upon hearing what happened, asked about it just to be safe. She was very relieved when Grace confirmed for a second time that Miltank was alright, but her aura showed signs of guilt.

Miltank was okay, yes. The crisis, though somewhat small, had been averted. Everything was okay now. The machine had been destroyed, and all of the Pokemon were happy and safe. Hopefully it was an isolated incident, and things would go back to normal.

Everything was okay.

So why did Grace get the horrible feeling that she was lying to herself?


	8. Chapter 8

**Did I lose anyone because of that delay last week? Shame.  
**

**Oh by the way - I don't know if I mentioned this earlier but Nyx has a shard of everstone on a necklace that she's always wearing. She doesn't want to evolve. Don't know if I ever specifically brought it up but now you know.**

* * *

VIII. _Forest Fire_

"Save the morning greetings!" Barlow exclaimed just as Grace exited the common area of the Ranger Base. As usual, Nyx was by her side, and both the Riolu and the Ranger looked more tired than usual. "The Vien Forest is on fire!"  
"Fire?!" Well, that waked them up.

"I need you and Luana to...wait, where is Luana?"

As if on cue, Luana opened the common area door and casually walked over. "What's the smell...did someone burn some toast or something?" she asked, covering her mouth as she gave a small yawn.

"Get your head out of the clouds, Luana!" Barlow exclaimed yet again, sounding a little harsh but it was meant well. "The Vien Forest's on fire, and I need you and Grace to meet with Crawford, who is already there."  
"F-F-fire?" Luana stammered, her face going pale. "We'll head to the site immediately!"

"Just be careful. You are not to do anything that would put yourselves in danger, and take no unnecessary risks," said the leader. "And if you do...you'll have to answer to me."

-x-

"These poor Pokemon..." Grace muttered when she, Nyx, and Luana arrived at the forest. She was expecting it to be bad, but she had never witnessed a forest fire, and had no real idea what they would be facing. It wasn't that bad at the entrance, so they suspected that the fire had started further in. Still, it was easy to see the flames on the taller trees.

'_Who did this?!_' Nyx exclaimed, stomping her foot angrily. She had her aura sensors raised, scanning the area for any Pokemon that might need help. Grace would have done the same, but she had to be on the look out for Crawford.

"This is awful..." Luana was looking around with horror-filled eyes. "What do you think happened?"

"A lot of forest fires are caused by humans..." Grace said, taking note of Nyx's comment. Nyx seemed intent on believing so, and she also had the gut feeling that this fire was man-made. Even the smallest things, such as a match, could cause a fire this big. She really hoped that it was just because a Growlithe got too excited or something like that, but also felt like hoping for such a thing was just denying the reality. "Let's just hope that this is one of those times where it isn't." Then turning to Nyx, she asked, "Do you sense anything?"

Luana turned toward Grace. "Huh, what?"

"Not you, Luana, sorry. I was talking to Nyx then. She's trying to find any Pokemon's auras," she explained.

"Any luck?"

Nyx lowered her sensors, looking a little sad. '_Nothing._'

Grace nodded. "She doesn't sense anyone in danger, so that's good. It's okay, Nyx. You did your best." Because of their bond, she got a pretty good idea of what Nyx was feeling. She hadn't found any auras, so she felt like she had let Grace down. In these instances, it was important to reassure her so she wouldn't feel down.

"Can Nyx help us find Crawford?" Luana suggested, raising her hand over her eyes and squinting as she tried to see through the smoke. It only got thicker and thicker the further they went into the forest, and naturally this limited their vision even more so.

'_I can do that. Give me a minute._' After relaying the message to Luana, Grace let her go to work. Again she rose the two sensors on her head, and after the minute, pointed in the direction they were already heading in. '_That way!_'

"She found him." Grace said, before she briefly focused so she could confirm it for herself. Not that she didn't trust Nyx, she trusted her with her own life, but a second opinion was always nice. She did indeed sense Crawford up ahead, as well as a large group of Pokemon. He must have been guiding them to safety. "Come on!"

"Good to see you guys!" Crawford said once he caught sight of the trio approaching him. "Say, is it hot in here or is it just me?" Grace and Luana (and yes, even Nyx) gave a slightly annoyed sigh at his joke. "Sorry, you're right, that was just awful. It really is good to see you."

He had been much further into the forest, and much closer to where the fire originally started. The smoke was even worse, and it was hotter, and it was getting harder to breathe. But they had bigger Magikarp to fry.

"This fire is too big to put out one by one," Crawford began, "We'll have to get a Blastoise to help. Can you two go capture one?"

Crawford hadn't really let them respond, because after that he ran off into another direction, and because of the smoke, was gone within seconds. Now they were searching for the Blastoise that supposedly lived in the forest.

"We should be looking near the water, right? I mean, it _is_ a Blastoise?" Luana suggested, as they were getting no where. Grace had the feeling that they were just walking in circles.

'_I'm sensing a large body near the water. It could be a Blastoise,' _Nyx said, gesturing in the direction where she was picking up the aura.

"Nyx has a lead. We can follow her." The smoke wasn't getting any better, and they needed that Blastoise.

"Right again, Nyx!" Grace praised as they came up to a small waterfront, where there was a Blastoise milling around. It looked a little annoyed, probably because of the fire.

"Do you want to catch it, or should I?" Luana asked, reaching for her Styler. "It looks kinda mad..."

The aura that Blastoise was giving off had a lot of red splotches in it, confirming that it was feeling angry. Hopefully that would all change once it was captured, and once the fire was taken care of.

"I'll catch it," Grace declared, pulling her Styler out of its holster. "Nyx, get ready."

'_Right._'

Grace shot the capture disc at Blastoise, and created the line around it with no real trouble. But that was when it got a little difficult. If Blastoise was angry before, now it was furious. It tried shooting Hydro Pump attacks at the line, but Grace managed to avoid them, albeit narrowly. Nyx used Force Palm on the line to make it stronger, but it still wasn't enough. Blastoise just wouldn't give up, and Grace was fearing that this capture would be a failure.

Luana, sensing her doubt, then got an idea. She ran to the other side of the area and started to make noise. Just random noise really, but her efforts were successful in getting Blastoise's attention, distracting it long enough so Grace could finish the capture.

"Capture complete!" she exclaimed as the disc withdrew inside the Styler. "Thanks for that, Luana." Blastoise looked a lot calmer now, and it even seemed to be smiling.

"Alright, Blastoise. Use Rain Dance!" Grace exclaimed as Blastoise got into position, before shooting two large balls of water into the atmosphere. Dark clouds began forming at once, and it was raining a second later. They were at the heart of the forest, so the cloud was over the entire thing, getting every inch of the fire.

Within minutes, it was done. The fire was out, and Blastoise was released, heading back to where it was before.

"Nice job!" Crawford said. He was dripping wet cause of the rain, but then again so were Grace, Nyx, and Luana. "Mission clear!"

"Do we know what caused the fire?" Grace asked, looking around for anything that could be the cause. "Wait...aren't those the machines from the cave?" She hadn't seen them before because of the smoke, but there were a few of those strange red machines scattered around the area, broken and burned.

Crawford confirmed the presence of the machines, and Luana thought they could have had something to do with the fire. Grace thought so too, and so did Nyx. They were all going to head back to the base to report to Barlow, but then caught the sight of something strange. Or rather, someone.

A young looking man, around Crawford's age maybe, had been going in the opposite direction, but once he saw the three Rangers, he bolted the other way.

"Hey!" Grace exclaimed, chasing after him. Crawford and Luana followed, and soon they cornered him.

"This guy..." Crawford started, looking him over. His shirt was dirty, with splotches of what looked like oil all over. He smelled like the stuff too. "He might know something"

-x-

"Crawford, Luana..." Barlow started, "and of course, Grace...your work today was simply outstanding. Good work, Rangers. Grace, I'm promoting you. Ranger Rank 2!"

'_I'm just glad the fire's gone,_' Nyx sighed with relief. She, Grace, and Luana were standing next to each other facing Barlow while Crawford was to the side with the young man that they had found in the forest.

"But this guy here..." Barlow brought everyone's attention the their apparent hostage. "He wouldn't stop struggling even when Elaine was nice enough to treat his burns. Not to mention he reeks of oil. I'd say he has something to hide. Until he decides to talk, bind him up a smidgen on the tight side!"

"Isn't that a little harsh?" Grace asked, but it seemed that no one heard her as Crawford and Barlow started to tie the guy up. Despite his best efforts, he visibly winced when they tightened the rope around his arms.

'_Poor guy._'

"Alright, buddy," said Barlow, to the tied-up man. "Can you at least tell us your name? Otherwise, you're just going to be known as 'oil-reeking guy'." It was a simple request, but this the man refused to speak. He was really scared, if his aura said anything. And what was that other color? Some sort of blue, a very deep shade, indigo even. Was that...guilt?

-x-

The rest of the day proceeded relatively normally. Defeating the forest fire had taken half the day, and it was well into early evening by the time everyone got back. Trying to get the guy's name took the rest of the day, and eventually everyone decided to just call him 'Ollie'. It was a nice name, and it would be much better than just calling him the things Barlow and Crawford were coming up with (which weren't even names to begin with). Night had fallen on the Ranger Base unexpectedly fast, but like it was mentioned, the events in the forest had taken most of the day.

The next day arrived and the though the fire was but a memory, it still impacted the town a lot. Everyone was worried about the Pokemon, but someone who caught Grace's attention in particular was a kind old woman who wanted her to capture a Combee. Apparently, they had always shared their honey with her (which was easily believable, Combee were generous like that) and she hadn't seen any since the fire, so naturally she was worried sick. Grace reassured her, telling her that she would be back with a Combee in no time at all.

Now, she and Nyx were trekking through what she could only assume used to be a beautiful forest (she had never had the time to visit the forest before the fire). It was a horrible sight, all the burnt up trees and charred remains of life, but the Pokemon seemed to be doing okay.

"Did you see that indigo in Ollie's aura yesterday?" Grace finally asked, she had been meaning to bring it up to Nyx but never got a moment alone with her.

'_Indigo, is that it? I saw it, but I've never seen a color like that before._' Nyx shook her head, her everstone necklace shaking a little bit because of the motion.

"That's weird. I must have learned about that kind of aura when I used to pull all-nighters on a regular basis." Grace shrugged. "Blues usually mean a sense of calmness, but an indigo that dark can only mean one thing: guilt. And based on how dark it was, I'd say Ollie was feeling pretty guilty."  
'_Guilty? For what, the fire?_'

She shrugged again. "That's all I can think of...but why? Maybe Barlow is right, maybe he really is hiding something. Maybe he knows what started the fire. I won't force him, though, I'll wait – huh, what?" Grace had been interrupted by a small pressure on her leg, the nudging of a small Shinx. He looked to be a very young cub, no more than a few weeks old. "Oh, hello little one."

Grace had been so focused on talking to Nyx, so she hadn't noticed the approaching aura, nor heard the Shinx coming. Nyx didn't seem to notice either, as she seemed just as surprised to see the electric-type Pokemon. She got down on her knees and made gentle cooing noises, and the Shinx came up close to her with no difficulty. She looked up and around the aura, and saw that there was a Luxray nearby, the Shinx's mother no doubt. Luxray was watching Grace with eyes like a Pidgeot, but she didn't do anything to try and take Shinx away.

"Huh? Is that for me?" she asked, referring to what Shinx had in his mouth; a small flower. He dropped it in her lap and gave a happy chime of his name.

'_He says that he saw you yesterday,_' Nyx said, translating. She knew Grace could understand Pokemon, but she just wanted to be sure. '_He saw that you put out the fire._'

"It's just what Rangers are supposed to do," Grace said, going in for a careful pet on the Shinx, which he accepted. That earned another glare from Luxray, but she relaxed once she saw that her cub wasn't in any danger. "Thank you for the flower." Shinx said his name again and ran off to join his mother, who led her cub deeper into the forest.

Both the Ranger and the Riolu watched them leave, before Grace remembered what they were doing in the forest in the first place. "Oh, right! Combee, Combee..."

"Thank you very much, Ranger," said the old woman, obviously very grateful to know that the Combee were doing well after the fire. Grace had captured a Combee like requested, and now said Pokemon was floating in place in front of her and the woman.

"No trouble, ma'am." Grace nodded. Combee seemed to want to go with the woman, so she pressed the button on her Styler to release it, and it went with the woman to her house.

-x-

"I don't know whose idea of a prank it was, but that silly barrier on Lookout Ridge..." grumble a somewhat familiar-looking old man. "Who knows what they'd hoped to achieve, but a hopelessly flimsy thing it was. A chop here, a kick her, and it fell apart as if it were made of toothpicks! But that dashed Wendy..."

"Excuse me, Professor?" Grace asked as she took a few steps further, to successfully intercept the man. He was Prof. Hastings, and he was here to take a look at that machine from the cave. Barlow asked Grace to meet up with him.

"Hm? Who might you be? A Ranger? Do you make a habit of eavesdropping on old folks like me?"

"Uh, no?" Grace said in a confused tone. Did he not remember her? They did meet before, but that _was_ a while ago...

"Oh wait, I remember you! You came out on a one-day internship!" he suddenly exclaimed, snapping his fingers as the memory suddenly came back to him. "Ah, so, you've graduated and you've made it as a Ranger."  
Grace smiled and nodded. "That's right. Barlow wanted me to come meet you."  
"Then let's go!"

Back at the base, Prof. Hastings and Elaine went to work. Elaine was especially happy about this, as she had wanted to take apart the machine from day one.

"...oh, now wait..." Prof. Hastings muttered, like he had seen something interesting. "I've seen something like this somewhere...recently, too. Yes, in Pueltown! I'd taken them to be mailboxes, but it seems I was mistaken!"

'_That can't be good._' Nyx said, letting out a huff.  
"Is that so?" Barlow asked. "There you have it, people. This is an emergency mission. Luana and Grace, go investigate the strange machines in Pueltown."

"Roger that!" Luana exclaimed as she, Grace, and Nyx ran out of the base, on the way to Pueltown to stop whatever was going on.

* * *

**Reviews make me work faster :o**


	9. Chapter 9

**:o Things get interesting in this chapter.**

* * *

IX. _Team Dim Sun_

"Look, look! Isn't that view amazing?" Luana exclaimed as she and Grace came upon a cliff. They were in one of the further-in parts of the Vien Forest, one that hadn't been affected by the fire.

"It _is_ pretty," Grace commented. With the nice breeze added in, she thought this would be a good place to have a picnic. But they were on business here. "But shouldn't we be getting to Pueltown?" Luana was quiet for a moment as she looked onward. Grace noticed what looked like a construction site a good distance away from where they were, so she couldn't tell exactly what they were building.

"TALK, OLLIE!" Luana suddenly shouted, catching both Grace and Nyx off guard.

'_What in the world was that for?!_' Nyx exclaimed in shock. The outburst had made her jump, and her fur was ruffled from the sudden stress on her nerves.

"Luana, what the...?" Grace asked, but Luana gave a simply gave a playful smile.

"It felt good to do that."

-x-

'_The noise again!_' Nyx shouted, immediately covering her ears like she had in Marine Cave. However, just like in the cave, it didn't seem to be helping at all. After a little while in the forest, they had finally gotten to Pueltown. And right away were faced with the situation at hand.

"That is definitely the same as the noise in the cave," Grace said, noticing how Nyx uncovered her ears after a few moments. She had gotten used to it, it seemed. It didn't affect her like it did the other Pokemon...and sure enough, a nearby Growlithe was running around, a dazed look in its eyes. "It's happening here, too."

"Hey! Rangers! Just who I wanted to see!" called an unfamiliar voice, the owner revealing himself as a young man who somewhat had the appearance of a surfer-type. "Do you know what's become of the Pokemon around here?"  
Luana shrugged, not really sure if she had a hold on the situation as well as Grace did. After all, Grace was the one who was there last time. "Have you noticed anything strange going on?"

"Well, just between us...I did see something shady." Both the Rangers put their full attention on this man, eager to learn about whatever he had witnessed. "I saw something really shady looking characters carrying these giant...things, into town. Right after that, all the Pokemon in town started acting weird like they are now. There's something crooked going on!"

'_This is definitely connected to what happened in Marine Cave,_' Nyx said.

Grace nodded in agreement. "Looks like we're gonna have to get some help like last time. Let's see...that one over there is red," she paused, pointing to the red machine that was near the Growlithe, "The one in the cave was red, so it's safe to say it can be destroyed in the same way."

"How did you destroy it last time?" Luana asked.

"We had a Gastrodon help us. Maybe another water-type can deal with this one?" Grace wasn't entirely sure if it would work, but it was the only lead they had.

"A water-type...? Oh, I saw a Bibarel back in the forest!" Luana exclaimed, before running off back into Vien Forest, presumably to capture the Bibarel she mentioned.

"The name's Brook," said the surfer-guy after a few seconds of awkward silence. "I don't think we've met."

Grace shook her head. "We haven't. I'm Grace, and this is my partner Nyx." Nyx offered a wave, and to her surprise Brook returned it. "We only just started a week or so ago."

"That explains it," Brook said, nodding. "Here in town I'm in charge of the northern drawbridge, but it seems that's the least of my worries with all of this going on."  
They would have said more, but at that moment Luana returned to the scene, with the Bibarel running behind her. Grace explained that she had to have Bibarel attack the machine, and once it used Water Gun, the machine fell apart just like the one in the cave did. After that, Bibarel was released and began to trek back toward the forest. The Growlithe, and surely any other nearby Pokemon, regained its senses.

"That's a relief," Luana said, sighing. It worked just as Grace predicted, but what she didn't predict was the newly-freed Growlithe to use its freedom to attack them. Luckily, it wasn't an issue, and soon it joined their small team as a temporary ally.

"How can I be useful here...?" Brook muttered, tapping his foot impatiently. Luana, Grace, and of course Nyx, took this chance to say that they were going to look for more machines.

"There's another one!" Luana exclaimed, pointing out another machine in the middle of a what looked like some kind of flowerbed. However, unlike all the machines that had been seen so far, this one was green. "Huh? It's a different color."

"It doesn't...seem...any different. I would ask to Nyx scan it, but it's inorganic." Grace shrugged, opting out of doing an aura scan herself. Like she said, it was a machine, an inorganic thing. It wasn't alive, therefore it had no aura to scan.

'_Maybe they just got bored of making red ones?_' Nyx asked, but even she knew how silly that sounded. Then again, it was possible...at this point, Grace was ready to believe anything.

"Hm," Grace hummed, getting an idea. "Growlithe, use Ember on that machine, please."

"Lithe!" Growlithe chimed, getting into a steady position before it opened up its mouth. A small stream of fire followed, blasting into the machine much like the attacks of Bibarel and Gastrodon did on the red ones.

"Whoa!" Luana exclaimed, surprised at the sight of the machine breaking.

'_I thought so!_' Grace cracked a grin at Nyx's words as she released the Growlithe. Luana still looked a little confused, so it was time for that storytelling part of her to come out.

"The colors are based on Pokemon typing. The red machine was destroyed by a water-type attack, like a fire-type Pokemon would be weak too. This green one," she paused, taking a step closer so she could examine the parts a little closer. It was all the same on the inside. "was destroyed by a fire-type attack, like a grass-type Pokemon."

"Ohhh, I get it! That's really clever!" Luana praised. "So then a black machine would be destroyed by a fighting-type?"  
"Yes!"

The small group patrolled throughout the rest of the town, but couldn't find any more machines. That was good, but it was also nerve-wrecking, at least it was to Grace. They couldn't find any signs of the shady characters that Brook had mentioned either, so that didn't help with the nerves.

Like an answer sent down from Arceus himself, when they entered a different part of town, that familiar annoying sound blared against their eardrums. In the midst of the chaos, was Melody, Isaac's little sister that Grace had met when she and Keith went on the one-day internship. She was surrounded by four hypnotized Pokemon, circling around her and they didn't look to be getting tired anytime soon. Brook was also there, trying to help, but he got himself caught in the fray by jumping over the Pokemon and into the circle. It was better for Melody, at least now she wasn't alone, but now they were both trapped.

"Well, this is awkward..." Luana said at the sight. "That machine's blue. Would that one need a grass-type move...?"

"I guess..." Grace muttered, trying to avoid looking at the auras of the two hostages for too long. Seeing such a frightened aura coming off a little girl was something she did _not_ want to remember. Luana had the right idea, but there was a single, fatal flaw. "But I haven't seen any grass-types around here, have you?"

'_What about an electric-type? They're good against water-types too, right?_' Nyx suggested. '_There was an Elekid back there._'

"That could work. Luana, do you remember seeing an Elekid anywhere?"

After five or so minutes, the Elekid that Nyx had mentioned was captured, and after about another minute, was successful in destroying the machine, and Brook and Melody were finally free from the rogue Pokemon. Said Pokemon had run off in fright as soon as they regained their senses.

"Hi, Melody," Grace greeted. "Do you remember me?"

"You're a Ranger now!" Melody chimed, with a smile that nearly took up her whole face. "And you've got your partner, that's so cool!"

Grace smiled, as seeing someone so full of energy tended to be contagious, and nodded. She told Melody that her partner's name was Nyx, and that they had been friends for a long time before deciding to become partners in the Ranger business.

"Isaac works hard now too, but I can't see him that often."

"But she has Uncle Brook here to keep her company," Brook said, ruffling up Melody's hair, making her giggle. "I was just saying a little while ago how I would help her with writing a letter to Isaac."  
"That sounds like a good idea," Luana said. "I'm sure he would appreciate that."

Brook nodded before saying that he was going to bring Melody back to her home, but before leaving he said that he saw some people going toward the harbor. With this new clue, the group took his advice and headed to the harbor.

The scent of the salty sea made it pretty clear that they were at the harbor, that and several hypnotized Wingull were flying around. It was easy to hear the noise from the machines over the waves, but there wasn't a machine in sight.

"There's someone up there," Grace said, pointing to a road that would take them behind the nearby building – probably a port or something like that. "A lot of someones, actually. And a Pokemon..."  
"Huh, what?" Luana asked, following after her after a moment's hesitation. "Did Nyx tell you that?"

Grace continued onward, nodding when she realized what Luana asked. In the heat of the moment, she hadn't even thought to voice that request...at least Luana wasn't suspecting anything, or so it seemed.

'_You're still not gonna tell them?_'

"Some Rangers are running around wrecking the Gigaremo units!" a voice hissed, causing Grace to emit her own sort of hiss before pulling Luana to the side. Luckily, the mysterious evil-doers didn't spot them. There were five in all, but the fifth one carried a different air about him, implying that he was a higher-up. The uniform was different too, if only to provide some sort of way to distinguish between them.

"Gigaremo?" Luana whispered. "Is that what those machines are called?"

"It's because it takes forever to install them," said another one of the goons. "It's not our fault they're so heavy."

"It's alright," the admin said. "We managed to collect enough data from this experiment."  
"I guess so," Grace nodded. "That one is yellow."

'_Electric?_' Nyx offered, tilting her head a little. She had her aura sensors raised, focusing on listening to the conversation just a few feet away.

"Maybe...but that Toxicroak is making me nervous..." All the Pokemon they had encountered since coming to Almia were easy to deal with, even those Tangrowth that were causing trouble on graduation day. But Toxicroak were _mean. _Even the ones that were kept by Trainers were prone to random temper tantrums if the smallest thing didn't go the way they wanted. And when you added in the fact that it was under the Gigaremo's control, and...it sent chills up Grace's spine if she thought about it for too long.

"He said something about an experiment," Luana said. "What's that about? ...Let's chance it and ask them." It was Grace's turn to follow her, because she didn't even give her a chance to answer. Luana walked out into the open, and asked the strangers who they were and what they were doing.

"Uh..." Grace murmured, shifting from side to side awkwardly. Nyx was practically mirroring her, but instead she was fiddling with her necklace.

'_Why do I get the feeling this will end badly?'_

"You vandals!" one of the goons shouted. "What do you have against Gigaremo?! Didn't your mother's teach you to respect what doesn't belong to you?!"

"Who are we, you ask?" another one started, "We're Team Dim Sun! A criminal syndicate with dreams of world domination! We came to Pueltown to experiment with our Gigaremo machines, to see if we can control Pokemon like puppets!"

The admin stepped up, and he did not look happy. "Why'd you tell them that?!"

To be honest, they hadn't really been expecting it to be that easy, and thus they were in a small state of shock. But Grace did hear that goon that told them everything explain that he was just trying to be helpful. It was weird.

"I'll make them forget what they heard with a little bit of unfriendly persuasion!" he exclaimed. Grace and Luana got ready, tensing up and grabbing their Stylers. "Team Rattata, attack!" A group of four Rattata came out of the shadows, charging at the Rangers. They were easy enough to capture, but they did make it a little difficult as they just wouldn't stay still.

"It'll take a lot more than that to scare us!" Luana exclaimed. One look at her aura told Grace that she wasn't feeling as confident as she sounded. She wasn't one to talk, though, as everything going on was making her very nervous too. She hadn't expected anything like this to happen, even though she knew what she was getting into when she signed up for this job.

"That's it," the admin declared. "Go, Toxicroak!"

Luana had taken to capturing the previous Rattata, so now it was up to Grace to capture this Toxicroak. With the ringing of the Gigaremo in her ear, she shot the capture disc at Toxicroak, who jumped up and reared its head. Right away Grace knew that this capture would be hard, even with Nyx's help.

"Roakk!" Toxicroak called, the bright red vocal sac swelling up when the vibrations went through it. Grace knew that was a sign that it was going to become aggressive, so she withdrew the disc for a brief moment. It charged around, looking for something to crash into, but because there was no line, there was nothing to attack. It reminded her of a Mankey that she saw a while ago. Just like this Toxicroak, it ran around aimlessly and ended up tiring itself out. The Mankey's Trainer was then able to call it back into its Poke ball, and everything was okay again.

"If I wait..." she muttered, waiting for that perfect moment. Just like the Mankey, Toxicroak grew tired after a few minutes of running around like an angry little kid. "Then an opening will appear...!"

Grace launched the capture disc, and began the capture again. Nyx helped out with her Pokemon Assist again, and Toxicroak was unable to escape because of how tired it had made itself. It shot a purple blob of gunk out of its mouth, a Sludge attack maybe, as some kind of last resort. Because of how tired the frog Pokemon was, it was a weak attack and it was easy to dodge. With just a few more loops, it was captured.

"That's it!" she said, wiping the sweat from her brow. That was...much harder than she thought it was going to be. Her arm hurt. Toxicroak was released momentarily, and it looked at Grace for a brief moment before running off.

Nyx shook her head in horror. '_The Pokemon know what is happening to them..._'

'_That just makes it worse._' Grace sent back the mental message, and even in their minds she sounded tired. It had been a long day. Even through the haze, she heard the Toxicroak give her the message loud and clear: thank you. Nyx was right. If Toxicroak was thanking her for capturing it, then it knew...

"That's enough!" the admin exclaimed, even angrier than he was before. "It's a waste of time to engage them. Sound the retreat! But we have to take this Gigaremo back to the Hideout...it's heavy, but the punishment for failure will be heavier still!" The four grunts then surrounded the yellow Gigaremo, deactivated it, and then carried it away (with visible looks of struggle on their faces) to a boat that was docked only a little ways away.

Before anyone said anything, Brook arrived on the scene, with a worried aura. "Damn it, they're getting away! Who knew they came by sea...but there's nothing to worry about," he paused, turning to the Rangers, "I may not look it, but I'm one fine swimmer if I do say so myself. I'll catch 'em. Just let me take care of things!"

Brook dived into the water, emerging just a second later with his sandals between his teeth. He _was_ a strong swimmer, but there was no way he was going to be able to catch up to a boat.

"Does he think he's a Sharpedo or something...?"

"I came out to fish when the Pokemon quieted down, and what's the first thing I see?" asked a fisherman, who walked up to the group. "Brook, sandals in his teeth, swimming after a boat. What's going on here?"  
"He went after some crooks," Luana explained. "Will he be okay? I'm a little worried."

"I think I get the picture. He does this kind of thing all the time." The fisherman shrugged. "Just let him do as he likes. He can swim all right, but he's not about to catch up to any boat. He'll be back soon enough."

"It's not possible..." As if on cue, Brook was climbing back onto to the concrete ground, dripping wet with sea water. "I can't do it."

"At least you tried," Grace said, trying to make him feel a little better. Sad auras were never her favorite thing in the world. "That's what counts."

"Well, I'm glad he's back safe," Luana sighed with relief. "I'll admit; I've never had a mission this dangerous before. We sure have a lot to report back to the base, don't we? Let's fill them in over voicemail on the way."

"Yeah, good idea."

* * *

**Duh-duh-DUH. What's going on here? Who are Team Dim Sun? Well, if you've played the game you already know...anyways, I hope you liked this chapter and please leave a review.  
I hope I did Brook justice. He's one of my favorite characters in this game and I hope I was able to write him well xD**


	10. Chapter 10

**Life is a thing. I got a job. And it's taking up most of my time. So I'm pretty sure I can't give a set day for updates anymore.**

* * *

X. _Family Matters_

"Morning, you two!" Barlow greeted as soon as Grace and Nyx entered the lobby of the base. "Prof. Hastings and Elaine were up all night working hard to dismantle that Gigamori machine."

"Gigaremo," Grace corrected, holding back the slight laughter. When she and Luana had reported back from Pueltown, he had mistakenly called the Gigaremo 'Gigaremi'. Seems that wouldn't be changing at all anytime soon.

"Oh, you know what I meant. "You're just in time! Big Bertha's here with some of her famous milk pudding."

"It's our Miltank's way of saying thanks," Big Bertha said as she walked over and handed Grace a plate and spoon. Nyx hopped onto Grace's shoulder, hanging on it so she could see what all the fuss was about.

Grace got some of the pudding on the spoon then held it up so Nyx could eat it. Once she did, her eyes lit up like a Volbeat's tail. '_This is delicious!_' she chimed.

Grace ate some too before nodding in agreement, her eyes shining in an equally happy manner. "I agree, this is amazing!"

"Well thank you! There's plenty left, have seconds if you like." Big Bertha went around handing plates to everyone who didn't have one while Grace and Nyx shared the rest of theirs. Now everyone had a plate except for Ollie (well, other than Elaine and Professor Hastings, but they were still working with the Gigaremo), but it wasn't like he could exactly eat it in his current condition now could he.

"What's wrong? You aren't hungry?" Bertha asked, confused at why he turned away when she offered to help him eat.

"That's Ollie," Barlow said, noticing her confusion. "He's a suspect until he talks."

'_I still don't buy into that 100%_,' Nyx said as she got off of Grace's shoulder. The pudding was so good, it was gone in seconds. '_What if he just got scared when he saw us? And that's why he ran off?_'

'_Good point,_' Grace nodded, knowing that was a very real possibility. '_That doesn't explain all the indigo in his aura, though. What does he have to be guilty about, if not something related to the fire?_' Even as she spoke (thought), the indigo that made home in Ollie's aura flared, as if Barlow speaking to him somehow made him feel guiltier. It made sense, but...

"It...It's all my fault!" Ollie suddenly shouted, catching everyone off guard. "The fire, it's all because of me!"

"Well, that explains that," she said quietly. As Ollie explained what really happened that day, she was relieved to see that the indigo in his aura was shrinking, getting smaller and smaller the more he spoke. According to him, someone he had never met approached him with a job that would have a high pay. All he had to do was set up the Gigaremo units in the forest. But then the unit started to spark, and the oil caught fire, and it spread to the forest.

"I see..." Barlow mused. "I think it's safe to say Team Dim Sun was behind all of this. Thank you. You're free to go now, Ollie."

"Grace, wait!" Ollie called as Grace and Nyx took literally two steps away from the base. After the confession, Barlow asked her to go patrolling around Chicole Village and be on the look on in case any Dim Suns were snooping around. Of course this was no problem, but she didn't count on Ollie suddenly becoming a factor in that equation. "My mo- friend lives in Chicole Village. I'd like to see how she's doing, but I'm really bad at things like this. Can I come with you?"

"No trouble at all," she replied. "Nice to officially meet you."

"Y-yeah, you too."

"So, um..." Ollie began, doing everything possible to avoid eye contact as they made their way to Chicole Village. "I noticed that your partner is wearing a necklace with some kind of rock on it...?"

Nyx immediately looked away, letting out a little huff. "Sorry about that," Grace began, "It's a really sour topic with her. But, yes, Nyx has that necklace. It's a piece of everstone that I found one day back in Sinnoh. See I'm from Celestic Town, and in town there are these ruins. Near the ruins you can find little bits and pieces of stones, and that's where I found it. She's worn it ever since."  
"But she _can_ evolve?"

"Oh, yes, definitely." She nodded. "If she wanted to, all she would have to do is take that necklace off and wait until the process wanted to begin."

'_Tell him to drop the subject!_'

"Uh...Elaine told me you two can talk to each other...what did she say...?"

"She just wants us to stop talking about it," Grace said simply. "Like I said, really sour topic."

Ollie led Grace to one of the houses in Chicole Village; this house belonged to a woman that Grace had met when she helped Crawford out with the newspapers.

"...Mom?" he began feebly. "Mom, I'm...I'm home. I'm sorry I was gone for so long...I'm sorry about everything. I'm sorry I always mess things up..."

The woman, Ollie's mother, turned away from the counter to face them. "All I wanted to hear was 'I'm home'. Not how much you're sorry, or any of that. None of that matters to me. All that matters is that you're here. Welcome home, son."

Ollie faced Grace, and gave a low sigh. "It's really my mom that I wanted to see. Sorry I lied to you."

"It's okay." Grace offered him a kind smile. "No harm done. And by the way, Nyx forgives you." She threw in that last part just so he wouldn't feel bad, even though she was pretty sure there was still a little bit of anger on the Riolu's part. They then left the house so that they could have a chance to catch up, and after popping in to say hello to Ben and her grandfather, they were heading back to Vientown.

On the way, just before leaving the village, Grace caught sight of that boy that she had met the other day, the boy with the blue hoodie. To her surprise he smiled and waved at her, and she found herself waving back. It may have been just because he associated her with Nyx, and he claimed to love Riolu very much, but still. It was nice to think about the fact that she had made a friend, even if she didn't know his name.

Back in the base, everything was going about as good as it had been lately. Professor Hastings and Elaine were still working on the machine, but other than that not that much was going on.

"Huh? What's this?" Elaine asked, getting everyone's attention. She was holding a small black stone that gave off a purplish sheen. "Maybe I should drill a hole in it? Or whack it with my hammer?"

"No, no, no!" Prof. Hastings exclaimed. "Don't do that! It might be important. I'll take it back to the Union for analysis. Tomorrow morning we will also have a meeting to discuss the Gigaremo threat. Barlow, come with me back to the Union. I'll need your help preparing for the meeting."

'_Do you see that?_'

'_Yes._' Nyx confirmed. '_Why would it have an aura like that?_' Indeed the strange black stone was giving off an _extremely_ dark aura, and it made their skins crawl.

Grace could only hope that the analysis would reveal something.

-x-

"Grace, good morning!" Barlow said as Grace arrived just outside of Pueltown. She, Luana, and Elaine had just been relaxing in the Base when her Styler started ringing, turns out that something was going on in Pueltown and they needed her help.

"Morning," Grace said. Nyx brought her paw up to her mouth to cover her yawn.

"Alright, here's the situation: Norward Bridge is stuck open, meaning no traffic can cross. Prof. Hastings needs to cross the bridge to get to the Ranger Union; he won't fly on a Staraptor no matter what, so he has to go by land. Anyway, you need to see the bridge."

Just as Barlow said, the bridge at the north end of town was open, both of the sides sticking up.

"Ah, here you are, Grace!" Prof. Hastings exclaimed. "Good morning, good morning!" After exchanging more greetings, he went over what was going on again and according to him, the bridge's operator, Brook, was nowhere to be found.

"Brook...?" Grace muttered, of course she remembered him. "Last time we were here, he was at the harbor. Maybe he's there?"  
"Good idea," Barlow replied. "Let's go check it out."

"Brook!" Barlow called upon spotting the man in question. He was at the harbor as suspected, just looking out into the sea. "Can you tell us why your Norward Bridge is still stuck open?"

'_Is he worried about something?_' Nyx asked. Grace had to blink to process it, but just like Ollie, he had blotches of indigo in his aura. Guilt...

"I'd like to see the bridge lowered into place just as much as you," Brook said. "But the bridge key is at the bottom of the sea. It must've fallen out of my pocket when I went after those creeps."

"Okay, we get the picture." He then turned to Grace. "You heard him. Grace, you can swim, right? Recover that key. This Micro Aqualung will let you breathe underwater," he paused, handing her a small black object. It went over the mouth, and it provided oxygen. "As for me, well...I...I'll stay on the shore. It'll be better that way."

After a moment's of studying the device, Grace nodded. "Okay." She decided not to question why Barlow was acting so funny, but she figured he was afraid of the ocean or he just didn't' know how to swim.

"I'll get a good friend of mine to loan me his boat," Brook began, "I'll take you out to where I lost the key. It's the least I can do. You just let me take care of things!"

-x-

Grace had never been on a boat before. Neither had Nyx for that matter, but out of the two of them, Grace was dealing with it much better. Nyx was trembling like a leaf, hanging on to Grace's leg out of the fear that she could fall off the boat at any moment. The boat wasn't even going that fast, but there was nothing to be done about it.

"It was around here," Brook announced at the boat came to a gentle stop. "There are fast-running currents, though. Be careful down there."

Grace nodded as she put on the Aqualung, securing it in place over her mouth. '_You stay up here,_' she said to Nyx.

'_You don't have to tell me twice._'

The underwater world was like nothing Grace had ever seen before. The rocks had a nice blue pigment because of the water, and there were several Pokemon swimming around.

"Okay, let's see..." Grace looked around, for anything that even resembled a key. It was a bit awkward moving around, but she got the hang of it after a few moments. A few Finneon were nearby, but they swam away as soon as they saw her.

"Aha!" she exclaimed as she caught sight of a small object. It had to be the key. She tried swimming a little closer, but it was then that a Sharpedo swam up and stopped right in front of the key. Much to her horror, the Sharpedo picked the key up in its mouth and it seemed to have gone down its throat, as after that it swam off faster than Grace even knew was possible.

"Great..." she sighed as she took out her Styler. Surprisingly, it was waterproof, but at the same time it wasn't that big of a surprise. She sent out a voicemail and Barlow answered right away, asking if she had found the key.

"What?!" he exclaimed when she told him what happened. "You're going to have to pursue the Sharpedo. I'm upgrading this to a full mission! Get the key from Sharpedo!"

This was much easier said than done. Whenever Grace saw Sharpedo, he (she determined that it was a male Sharpedo based on the size) swam off right away, causing another chase to ensue. He was very fast, like any Sharpedo, but he had swallowed a key and it was probably freaking him out a lot more than anyone could ever understand, so understandably this little factor made him kick his fins into overdrive.

It seemed like a good hour or so before Grace had finally cornered Sharpedo into an almost hallway-like formation, and she was happy to have caught up to him after so long. He had led her through what seemed like the entire ocean, but in reality it wasn't really that much ground. At one point she even had to capture a Mantine in order to cross an abyss. She had a mission.

But, of course, it wasn't even close to being finished. As established, Sharpedo was very scared because of the key lodged in his throat. And, as a result, he took made every possible attempt to stay away from Grace. It got so bad she had to catch herself on those fast-running currents that Brook had mentioned, and even then it didn't seem like it would be enough.

But it was.

Grace managed to catch up to Sharpedo just as he was about to turn a corner, and she launched that capture disc at him before he even realized she was there. The capture was difficult, again because of the fear-filled state the Pokemon was in, but it also benefited Grace because it made him too afraid to attack. With this, Sharpedo was captured in about two minutes.

"Okay, buddy, come here..." she cooed, placing a hand on Sharpedo's snout to try and get him to trust her better. The purpose of capturing was so a Ranger could convey trust and friendship, but in this case that just wouldn't be enough. Now that Sharpedo was relaxed, he was able to cough up the key as it (thankfully) hadn't passed through his system and instead stayed in the throat.

Grace was able to get the key with no problems, and she thanked Sharpedo before she released him. The poor thing had to have been terrified, but hopefully it would be better now that the threat was removed.

Remembering what happened with Brook, she kept a firm grip on the key. With her Styler in the other hand, she managed to maneuver her hand around so she could click the 'voicemail' button.

-x-

"You're really starting to impress me," Barlow said as Grace, Nyx, and Brook arrived back at the harbor where he was waiting. "Wasn't it rough underwater? It's mission clear!"  
Grace simply nodded, deciding not bring up that there was still some water stuck in her ear and it would take forever to get out.

"Here." Barlow handed her a towel that seemed to appear out of nowhere. She took it gratefully, squeezing it around her hair to help soak up the extra water. "By the way, because of how well you handled yourself under there, I'm promoting you to Ranger Rank 3!"

"Awesome!" she cheered, exchanging a brief glance with Nyx (and a mental message, but no one needed to know about that).

"Ah, it's good to see you back," Prof. Hastings said. "I trust the Micro Aqualung was useful? One of our researchers, Nage, made it. He's quite proud of it."

"I'll have to thank him, then," Grace replied. She still had the towel that Barlow gave her, but because of the running it wasn't needed as much anymore. Now it was simply draped over her shoulders. "One day."

'_Wonder what he's like?_' Nyx asked, peeking Grace's curiosity.

"Okay," Barlow began, "Brook, do your thing."

"Sure thing!" Brook exclaimed. Grace was happy to see him return to his usual self. He had been unusually quiet on the trip to the bridge, but now his aura was shining bright unlike the dull color of guilt. He ran over to the little office area and presumably used the key, as within a minute or so the bridge was lowered and the path was clear.

The group began to cross, but were stopped by another young man donned in a blue uniform of sorts. He looked worried, and his aura showed it.

"Professor!" he exclaimed. "Boy, am I glad to see you. It's so unlike you to sleep over somewhere else. You sure had me worried."  
"Murph!" said the Professor, giving a name to this friendly-looking face. "We must return to the Union and conduct a meeting to counter the Gigaremo! Barlow, we must hurry!"

Murph stepped out of the way so that Prof. Hastings and Barlow could make it through faster. Soon they were out of sight and Grace and Nyx were alone with this Murph fellow.

"Uh. Hi?"

"Oh, hello there!" Murph turned and greeted her with a big smile. "How nice to meet you! I'm Murph. I'm in charge of PR for the Union. So I get access to all the Ranger databases, so of course I know who you are. It's my job to know these things."

"Okay, then who am I?" Grace playfully asked.

"Right! I know this..." he paused, obviously struggling to remember the name. "Uh..."

'_Looks like he forgot_,' Nyx said.

"Grace."

"Grace? Yes, that's right! I just had to confirm that, yep. Listen, Grace, you just finished a mission, right?" After a nod, he continued, "There's a nice little park ahead perfect for relaxing."

-x-

Murph led them to exactly what he said: a quaint little park with a stage in the middle. But that wasn't what got Grace's attention. Yes, it was a very nice setting, but there was a familiar aura moving toward them and she had perked up. Was it Keith? No, she would have known if it was him by the aura alone...she didn't know this one very well, so...who was it?

"Grace? Is that you?" a familiar-sounding voice asked, following the voice she found that familiar aura was right in front of her, and it belonged to a familiar-looking boy.

"Isaac?"


End file.
